ECPC Press Release - 22 October 2005

Brussels, 22.10.2005

Thousands of EU citizens are dying every year of cancer because of inequalities in health care across member countries. Speaking of his shock at the extent of inequalities at the European Health Forum in Bad Gastein on 7 October 2005, Commissioner Kyprianou, in charge of Health and Consumer Protection at the Commission, called for greater coordination on health issues to bridge the health gaps across the EU of 25 Member States.

“When I became European Health Commissioner I was genuinely surprised by the extent of inequalities in health status and incidence of diseases that span our continent. This is a major challenge for us all.

Can we really accept:

• That male life expectancy in Estonia and Latvia is a full 12 years shorter than in nearby Sweden?
• That heart disease kills almost ten times more women in the Slovak Republic than in France?
• Or that lung cancer kills twice as many people in Hungary than in Finland?
• Do we really want a European Union that sees these differences as reasonable, or even inevitable? “

The answer from the European Cancer Patient Coalition and its 160 members from across the European Union is a resounding NO.

ECPC thanks Commissioner Kyprianou for highlighting these shocking inequalities which are unacceptable in our European family of 25 Member States. ECPC will be working together with its member organizations, policy makers and politicians, health professionals and other interested and committed parties to bring about change. “Together we will be campaigning for equal access to quality cancer screening programmes, early diagnosis, best quality treatment and care for cancer patients living in the EU Member States,” says Lynn Faulds Wood, President of ECPC who survived advanced colon cancer. “It is shocking for me to think that someone with my cancer will have a worse chance of survival only because he or she is living in another country in Europe.”

See Commissioner Kyprianou speech

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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