6.9.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 342/113 Wednesday 16 February 2022
diagnosis; whereas an estimated 100 million screening tests were not performed in Europe during the pandemic and 1 million cancer cases are undiagnosed; whereas 1 in 5 cancer patients did not receive the surgical or chemotherapy treatment they needed on time (27); whereas healthcare professionals have taken on the burden of a pandemic and have had to cope in a very stressful working environment;
G.
whereas health literacy includes the acquisition of knowledge and skills, awareness of rights and the confidence to take action to improve personal and community health; whereas actions to promote health literacy under the Plan should focus on empowering patients and citizens through state-of-the-art communication tools, and also by seeking the expertise of, and collaborating with, patient organisations and other NGOs which have been working on disseminating and spreading health literacy for years; whereas patient empowerment requires assisting patients in understanding their rights; whereas all efforts to increase health literacy, including digital literacy, should take into account people who are experiencing exclusion and the needs of people with learning disabilities; whereas inequalities in knowledge of, access to and use of IT technologies, as well as regional, national, social and economic differences, should be taken into account; whereas the necessary information should be available in common non-EU languages in order to reach migrants, new arrivals and other vulnerable groups and minority communities; whereas in efforts to improve health literacy, the onus should also be on assisting citizens in identifying misinformation, noting the harmful impacts this can have across all areas of cancer care, including prevention, vaccination and treatment;
H.
whereas about 40 % of cancer cases in the EU are preventable; whereas prevention is more effective than any cure, as well as the most cost-effective long-term cancer control strategy; whereas the Plan should address all key risk factors and social determinants of cancer; whereas the EU level is crucial in cancer prevention as it has significant competences that have an impact on most risk factors for cancer;
I.
whereas according to Report No 21/2019 of the EEA, cancer is the top non-communicable disease attributable to the environment, with more than 250 000 cancer deaths attributed to the environment in 2016 in 32 high-income European countries; whereas the EEA identified ambient air pollution, chemicals, indoor fuel combustion and radiation as environmental risk factors for cancer;
J.
whereas air pollution is a main driver of mortality, with pollutants from a wide range of sources, including energy, transport, agriculture and industry, contributing to 400 000 premature deaths per year, including from lung cancer, heart disease and strokes;
K.
whereas the Commission communication on strengthened cooperation against vaccine-preventable diseases (COM(2018)0245) recommends developing EU guidance to establish comprehensive electronic immunisation information systems at national level for effective monitoring of immunisation programmes; whereas this should be done in full compliance with data protection rules; whereas human papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted infection associated with almost 5 % of all cancers in women and men worldwide, namely cervical and oropharyngeal, but also anal, penile, vaginal and vulval cancers; whereas both reaching HPV vaccination coverage targets for girls and setting up high-quality organised cervical cancer screening is necessary in order to reach the 2030 WHO goals regarding the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem; whereas HPV vaccination rates are worryingly low across the Member States; whereas, regretfully, there are major discrepancies in vaccination coverage between Member States, ranging from less than 30 % to more than 70 % (with the required level of population immunity being at 70 %); whereas Helicobacter pylori is the principal infectious cause of cancer worldwide, mainly for non-cardia gastric adenocarcinoma;
L.
whereas certain endocrine cancers (such as thyroid, breast and testicular cancer) are on the rise; whereas endocrine treatments for hormone-dependent cancers can have endocrine side effects; whereas cancer treatments can have long-term effects such as endocrine comorbidities in cancer survivors; whereas obesity is a known risk factor for many cancers, including endocrine cancers; whereas exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) is known to have an
(27)
https://www.europeancancer.org/resources/201:time-to-act.html https://www.europeancancer.org/timetoact/impact/data-intelligence