ECPC Press Release - 22 March 2006

Brussels, 22.03.2006

The European Cancer Patients Coalition (ECPC) has welcomed a call for action endorsed by MEPs Against Cancer (MAC) at their first conference held at 22 March 06 in the European Parliament in Brussels, which was attended by EU Commisioner for Health, Markos Kyprianou.

The statement called for a Cancer Task Force to be set up at a European level to galvanise the fight against cancer, and called on national Health ministers to take a number of urgent steps to improve cancer prevention, screening and treatment, and reduce glaring inequalities in mortality from cancer across Europe.

Every day 5,000 Europeans are diagnosed with cancer and 3000 die from the disease. The WHO has predicted a “cancer epidemic” due in part to Europe’s aging population.

Lynn Faulds Wood, president of ECPC, welcomed the MAC initiative, and stressed the importance of political will in the fight against cancer, particularly in the current budgetary climate. “The EU recommendations on screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers have shown how effective united European action can be,” she said, “and cancer patients across Europe will welcome moves by MAC to put cancer high on the priority list.”

She warned however that current proposals by the European Council to cut the EU public health budget by two-thirds; to EUR 21.5 million would severely compromise the fight against cancer in Europe “The Europe Against Cancer Programme which stopped in 2002, had lasting effects, but it had a budget of euro 50 million. If the Council’s budget is agreed, a Europe that has almost doubled in size will have less than half that amount to cover all public health areas,” she said.

Vice-president of the European Parliament Professor Trakatellis, addressing the MAC conference, said Member States should view the public health budget as an investment. “We will put most money into prevention, screening and early diagnosis. For each euro we put in, we get much more back in terms of the economic burden of healthcare of Member States, which is very costly. Each cancer case we prevent, we save a lot of money for the member states.”

Asked whether he would agree to set up a Cancer Task Force, Health Commissioner Kyprianou said, “I cannot make any commitments about any of the Commission’s projects until April [when the budget is decided].”

Closing the conference, MAC co-chair Alojz Peterle MEP, a cancer survivor and former Slovenian Prime Minister, said, “This is not just a question of money. It is a question of political will.”

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Notes to the Editor

The European Cancer Patient Coalition was founded in 2003 under the slogan “Nothing about Us, Without Us. It is committed to improving cancer prevention, screening, early diagnosis and best treatment, reducing disparity and inequality across the EU. ECPC seeks to ensure that policy makers, politicians, health professionals, the media and the general public recognise the serious nature of cancer and the need for concerted action to reduce unnecessary death and suffering. Further information can be found at www.ecpc-online.org.

Cancer in Europe: Key facts and figures

• There are more than 2 million new cases and more than 1.1 million cancer deaths in Europe each year
• Every day 5214 Europeans are diagnosed with cancer and 3185 die from their disease
• Lung cancer is the commonest form of cancer, followed closely by colorectal cancer
• Lung, colorectal and breast cancer account for two-fifths of the entire European cancer population
• Most of the other cancer are considered rare diseases according to the EU criteria affecting not more than 5/10,000 people in the EU
• The number of Europeans with cancer will increase dramatically over the next 20 years mainly due to the ageing population