News and Resources

  • Event

    INTERACT-EUROPE Showcase Event

    17 - 16 November 2023, Radisson Collection Hotel, Grand Place Brussels (and Virtual)

    Pioneering the Future of Inter-Specialty Cancer Education: Breaking down barriers and uniting expertise.

     

    On 17 November, the day after the European Cancer Summit 2023, we invite you to join leading oncology education experts from across Europe, and many others, in considering ground-breaking new methods and tools for improving inter-specialty cancer training.

     

    The INTERACT-EUROPE project, as a flagship element of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, has developed an innovative new approach to supporting new levels of cooperation between professions involved in cancer care by creating a first-of-its-kind inter-speciality cancer training curriculum.

     

    Tested by a pioneer cohort, and with technology-enhanced features, the showcase event will look to the future as ambitions increase to embrace more than 100 cancer centres in 15 or more countries to the programme by 2027.

     

    We welcome your participation to the event, to contribute to the vision of inter-specialty cancer training under formation and to connect your organisation to the coming expansion of the concepts and implementation. 

     

    If you wish to attend, please express your interest by filling the form here. 

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  • Event

    European Cancer Summit

    16 - 15 November 2023, Radisson Collection Hotel, Grand Place Brussels (and Virtual)

    Accelerating Momentum: A manifesto to 2030


    This Summit is special, and it's reflected in the slogan.

    'Accelerating Momentum' highlights our impatience. The EU's Beating Cancer Plan is the opportunity of a lifetime. We're already implementing a variety of new projects to better care for cancer patients and survivors.  But, together, we need to do much more - and much more quickly. The current EU Parliament comes to an end next year.

    'A manifesto... ' refers to a detailed list of cancer care priorities and proposals compiled by the European Cancer Organisation from input received from its member societies and patient groups. The manifesto will be unveiled at the Summit, and we need to ensure every candidate standing in next year's European Parliamentary elections subscribes to this roadmap.

    '...to 2030'... We cannot afford to wait. Cancer doesn't. We need to set clear deadlines for tangible progress.

    If ever there was a time and a place to rally the European cancer community – this is it!

    Join us on 15 & 16 November 2023. And the next day, we have a Special INTERACT Showcase invitation-only event.  Find out more.

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  • Event

    Community 365 Roundtable on Genomic Tumour Testing: Delivering Precision Goals in European Oncology

    03 October 2023, Virtual

    On Tuesday 3 October at 14:30 - 17:00 CEST, the European Cancer Organisation will hold the third Community 365 Roundtable event of 2023, on the subject of delivering Precision Goals in European Oncology.

     

    The meeting will be co-chaired by Patrycja Rzadkowska, ECO PAC Member and Patient Advocate for Pancreatic Cancers Europe and Mark Lawler, ECO Board Member and Chair in Translational Cancer Genomics, Queen's University Belfast.

     

    Genomic tumour testing plays a crucial role in precision medicine and personalised cancer treatment. By understanding the genetic makeup of a tumor, healthcare providers can tailor treatment strategies to individual patients, leading to improved outcomes. However, there are several challenges in implementing genomic tumour testing effectively, and this roundtable aims to address those challenges and discuss the way forward.  

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  • Event

    Caught in the Middle: Identifying Gaps for Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer

    27 September 2023, Virtual

    The STRONG-AYA project: improving the future of AYAs with cancer.

     

    About the STRONG-AYA project

    The STRONG-AYA project is a new, interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder European network to improve healthcare services, research and outcomes for Adolescents and Young Adults (AYA) with cancer, defined as individuals aged 15-39 years. 

     

    What is the STRONG-AYA Stakeholder Forum?  

    This STRONG-AYA Stakeholder Forum entitled "Caught in the Middle: Identifying Gaps for Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer" aims to provide a space through which relevant stakeholders can actively engage with the adolescent and young adults (AYAs) cancer community on the STRONG-AYA project and its latest developments beyond its consortium and duration.  

     

    Important information before registering

    Upon registration, an email invitation will be sent to each participant with an added calendar attachment. In order to ensure that these invites work in the intended way, the emails of the participants will be visible to each other in the invites. All participants are invited to be aware of this before registering.

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  • essential-requirements

    Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care: Ovarian

    September 2023

    The European Cancer Organisation is proud to announce the release today of its ‘Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care: Ovarian’.

    Ovarian cancer is the 8th most frequent cancer diagnosis and the 8th leading cause of cancer death in women.

    Ovarian banner small size

    The new document, crafted by European experts representing different disciplines, provides oncology teams, patients, policymakers, and managers with an overview of the critical elements needed in any healthcare system to establish high-quality ovarian cancer care.­­­

    Acknowledging the disparities in services and capabilities among different nations, the expert team pinpoints practical needs that could be met universally. These encompass everything from arranging healthcare, establishing schedules, and allocating resources to delineate the functions and obligations within ovarian cancer teams.

    “This paper on ERQCC Ovarian cancer, sets the stage for the requirements for addressing the complexity of this disease and what is nowadays needed as far as resources, multidisciplinary expertise and coordination to provide whole patient quality care along with the best evidence-based available treatments to patients diagnosed with this cancer" said Luzia Travado, ERQCC Ovarian Co-Chair and clinician and researcher of Psycho-Oncology at Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon,  “a step forward for a future Quality Assurance Scheme for the accreditation of Ovarian Cancer treatment Units or services" she concluded.

    "Care for women with ovarian cancer should be organised in pathways that cover the patient journey from diagnosis to follow up, including surgical/medical treatment, rehabilitation, psychosocial support, survivorship and palliative care” stated Cristiana Sessa, ERQCC Ovarian Co-Chair and honorary consultant at Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland. “Initial surgery is the mainstay of treatment and poor access to a specialist team results in suboptimal surgical care and staging”.

    Collectively, these new requirements offer a vision of good practice and outline the necessary measures to achieve it.

    Discover the new requirements here.

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  • news

    Joint ECO/ERS call for cleaner air to prevent cancer Critical EU Vote on Air Quality Standards

    12 September 2023
    Brussels:
     
    logo signaturemem 01 
     
    Later today, the European Parliament will discuss the new EU Ambient Air Quality Directive (AAQD) and will vote tomorrow. The European Cancer Organisation (ECO) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) strongly support the text as voted by Environment Committee (Lopez Report) in June 2023, and urge MEPs to vote in favour of the Lopez Report. This is a unique opportunity to prevent cancer in line with Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.
     
    Air pollution is the greatest environmental threat to health and every European citizen is unavoidably exposed to it, with disproportional effects for vulnerable social groups with pre-existing conditions. In 2020, exposure to air pollution throughout the EU caused more than 311,000 premature deaths.
     
    Toxicological and epidemiological studies show that particulate matter causes inflammatory reactions in the lungs and elsewhere in the body, blood clotting, cardiac arrhythmia, increases atherosclerosis, and alters lipid metabolism. As a result, air pollution is linked with increased risk of several major chronic diseases, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), myocardial infarction stroke, respiratory infections and lung cancers. A Lancet Commission on pollution and health established that pollution causes up to 29% of all lung cancer deaths1. International Agency on Research of Cancer (IARC) declared air pollution as carcinogenic to humans in 2013, and the latest research shows link with other than lung cancer, including breast, colon, liver, stomach, kidney among others.
     
    The new EU directive helps people live a better quality of life and provides for compensation if health is damaged from air pollution, in violation of the new rules.
     
    The proposal will bring more clarity on access to justice, effective penalties, and better public information on air quality. It will support local authorities by strengthening provisions on air quality monitoring, modelling, and improved air quality plans.
     
    ECO and ERS, however, encourage the European Parliament to go even further, and:
     
    • Calls for the directive to have 'full alignment' of EU air quality standards with the WHO Air Pollution Guidelines 2021;
    • Goes beyond 'minimum requirements' in both EU and Member States and sets ambitious targets to meet EU air pollution objectives and even outperforms WHO guidelines;
    • Orders additional studies and analysis to better understand the effects of the public's exposure to even lower levels of air pollution.

     

    https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_6278

    European Environment Agency, ‘Premature deaths due to air pollution continue to fall in the EU, more efforts needed to deliver a toxic-free environment’, 2022

    https://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/premature-deathsdue-to-air

    World Health Organisation, Global Air Quality Guidelines, 2021

    https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240034228

    T. To, J. Zhu et al., ‘Early life exposure to air pollution and incidence of childhood asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema’, European Respiratory Journal, 2020

    https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/55/2/1900913

    A. Bettiol, E. Gelain et al., ‘The first 1000 days of life: traffic-related air pollution and development of wheezing and asthma in childhood.

    A systematic review of birth cohort studies’, Environmental Health, 2021 https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-021-00728-9 Thurston GD, Kipen H, Annesi-Maesano I, Balmes J, Brook RD, Cromar K, et al. A joint ERS/ATS policy statement: what constitutes an adverse health effect of air pollution? An analytical framework. Eur Respir J. 2017;49(1)

    B.Hoffman, B. Brunekreef, Z.J. Andersen, F.Forastiere, H.Boogaard, ‘Benefits of future clean air policies in Europe: Proposed analyses of the mortality impacts of Pm2.5 and NO2’, Environmental Epidemiology, 2022

    Ambient air pollution -https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/topics/indicator-groups/indicator-group-details/GHO/ambient-air-pollution

    Cancer and air pollution, UICC, https://www.uicc.org/what-we-do/areas-focus/cancer-and-air-pollution#:~:text=The%20Lancet%20Commission%20on%20pollution,rise%20in%20outdoor%20air%20pollution

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  • news

    Tributes to Veronique Trillet-Lenoir MEP 1957-2023

    09 August 2023

    Tributes to Veronique from the vast European cancer community have been flowing in. See below. We've also received lots of photos of Veronique that we've compiled in a special photo library. If you'd like to add your own message or picture, please send them to info@europeancancer.org. Be sure to include your name, title and any caption for photos.

    It is with great sadness that the European Cancer Organisation has learned of the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Veronique Trillet-Lenoir MEP, at the age of 66.

    It is hard to imagine any one individual who's had such an influence in so many areas of cancer care.

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  • news

    smartCARE Patient-led Workshops

    03 August 2023

    In June and July 2023, the smartCARE patient-led workshop series brought together members of the cancer survivor community for the first time in a virtual setting. The aim was to gain insights into the diverse needs of users that should be integrated into the prototype app. These findings will also lay the foundation for future surveys that will help define the long-term objectives of the Cancer Survivor Smart Card. 

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  • Event

    Community 365 Roundtable Meeting on Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Oncology: Unrealised Potential?

    04 July 2023, Virtual

    On Tuesday 4 July, 14:30-17:00 CEST, the European Cancer Organisation will facilitate the next Community 365 Roundtable Meeting on Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in oncology: Unrealised Potential?

     

    Roundtable Co-Chairs Isabel Rubio (ECO Board Member and ESSO President) and Zorana Maravic (ECO PAC Member and CEO of Digestive Cancers Europe) will lead a programme of expert speakers and panels through pertinent and developing aspects of the PROMS agenda.

     

    Supported by opportunities with exchange with Roundtable attendees, the gathered perspectives will enable a new ‘Action Report’, with policy recommendations, to be developed from the meeting, reviewed and approved through the ECO Policy Pathway of ECO Member Societies and the ECO Patient Advisory Committee. 

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