Europe’s beating cancer plan : supporting actions to reduce inequalities.
Date: 2023-02-01
Institutions: Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety
Subjects: EU Member State, EU action, cancer, disease prevention, health care system, health statistics, medical diagnosis, social inequality, therapeutics

Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan 
Supporting actions to reduce  
inequalities 

F E B R U A R Y   2 0 2 3

#EUCancerPlan #HealthUnion

While some EU countries have been able to reduce cancer mortality by up to 18% between 2011 and 2019., others have not been 
able to reduce it at all. There are also wide disparities in cancer mortality between men and women. 

Variations  between  countries  can  be  explained  by  different  exposure  to  risk  factors  for  cancer  as  well  as  the  different 
capacity of health systems to provide timely and free access to early diagnosis, high quality of cancer care and treatment. 
Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan is helping EU countries to address this through its ten flagship initiatives and dozens of supporting 
actions.

PREVENTION

Smoking, harmful alcohol consumption, obesity, physical inactivity 
and exposure to air pollution are all important risk factors for cancer.

The forthcoming actions on smoke-free environments and 
vaccine preventable cancers will reduce exposure to risk factors  
and help strengthen access to prevention services.

An ‘EU Mobile App for Cancer Prevention’, 
funded under the EU4Health programme, 
will offer individuals practical information 
on ways to reduce their cancer risk.

Overweight and obesity (adults)

Exposure to air pollution

Smoking (adults)

Harmful alcohol consumption (adults)

HPV vaccination (women)

In Sweden less than 7% of the population 
smoke daily, but in Bulgaria the share of 
smokers is more than four times as high 
(28.7%).

Sweden

Bulgaria

EARLY DETECTION

The 2022 Council Recommendation on cancer screening seeks to offer breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening to 
90% of eligible people living in the EU. 

Uptake of screening programmes differs widely across countries: from 6 to 90% for breast cancer and from 
around 25 to 80% for cervical cancer. 
There are large inequalities in disfavour of certain population groups. For example, participation in cervical cancer 
screening varies almost two-fold between education groups. 

DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT AND CARE

In 2018, EU countries spent in total € 199 billion on cancer care  
326€ annually per capita (PPP-adjusted).

Total spending varies widely, not only depending on the size of the 
country. 

Spending on prevention increased over 
the past year. This ranges from more 
than 5% to around 1%. 

2019

2020

%

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Countries do not have the same technological capacity to meet 
people’s needs and access to oncology medicines remains unequal 
across EU countries.

Some EU countries face workforce shortages.

There is a three-fold difference 
in the availability of radiotherapy 
across the EU.

Equipment Low
Physicians High

Equipment High
Physicians High

1100

1000

900

800

700

600

500

400

AT

EL

PT

ES

RO

HU

IT

HR

EE

LV

SI

PL

Equipment Low
Physicians Low

LT CY

EU

CZ

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BG

NO

SK

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DK

LU

FI

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Physicians Low

0.5

1.0

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3.0

Number of radiation therapy equipment per 1000 cancer cases

The EU Network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres will facilitate the 
uptake of quality-assured diagnosis and treatment, including training, research 
and clinical trials across the EU.

Data: European Cancer Inequalities Registry, 2023

The European Cancer Imaging 
Initiative supports the development 
of new computer-aided tools based 
on AI technologies to improve 
personalised medicine and innovative 
solutions in cancer care. 

© European Union, 2023
Reuse of this document is allowed, provided appropriate credit is given and any changes are indicated (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International 
license). For any use or reproduction of elements that are not owned by the EU, permission may need to be sought directly from the respective right holders.
All images © European Union, unless otherwise stated.

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  ISBN 978-92-76-99040-6   doi:10.2875/114537   EW-04-23-083-EN-N