5.D. Round table: Implementing Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan: Challenges and opportunities from European countries
Authors:   Organised by: Sciensano (Belgium), EUPHA-CHR, EUPHAnxt,   Chair persons: Marie Delnord (Belgium), Saverio Stranges (EUPHA-CHR)
Published: October 2023

Cancer is one of the most pressing issues in public health, one that places that carries a large burden on society, governments, and healthcare systems. Without strong action, cancer incidence in Europe is expected to increase by a fifth in 2040, translating into more than 5 million cancer cases (5,328,323) (IARC,2020) . While over 40 % of cases are preventable, 3.9 million people in the EU are diagnosed each year, and 1.9 million deaths are cancer-related. In an effort to tackle cancer, the European Commission (EC) launched two major initiatives: Europe's Beating Cancer Plan (EBCP), and the Mission on Cancer. The EBCP, launched in 2021, is a policy-driven initiative aimed at supporting Member States in addressing every stage of the disease: prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and treatment. The EBCP is supported by a research driven initiative which is the Mission on Cancer. The ambition of these initiative is to reduce the burden of cancer in Europe and save 3 million lives by 2030. Knowledge exchange and capacity building between member states are essential to create a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities in cancer prevention and control, as is facilitating exchange and collaboration between the plethora of actors within each national context. To guarantee the successful implementation of the EBCP and the Mission on Cancer, one must consider the diversity of national contexts. The aim of the workshop is to explore how countries evaluate their needs in the field, through engaging public health actors and community members, with a participatory approach, to implement the EBCP while taking into account the diversity of contexts within countries. In this workshop, we seek contextualise the EC's EBCP and explore implementation strategies from different Member States, with a particular focus on participatory approach to public health initiatives and policy design and implementation. More specifically, a panel will share experiences and discuss examples from Belgium and other European countries in supporting the national implementation of cancer initiatives. The panel will lay the foundation for a discussion with the audience on the opportunities and challenges in various EU countries on participatory public health policy design and implementation, using cancer policy related to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and research, as a case study.

Key messages

• Europe's Beating Cancer Plan should be contextualised taking into consideration Member States and their citizen's heterogeneity and needs, while also adapting to health systems characteristics.

• Knowledge and capacity building between Member States is essential to create a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities in cancer prevention and control in Europe.

Speakers/Panelists

Jinane Ghattas

EUPHAnxt

Anabela Isidro

Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica, Lisbon, Portugal

Linda Abboud

Sciensano, Brussels, Belgium