From Our President – A Summit to Remember

 

It happens each and every year: I walk away from the European Cancer Summit with an overwhelming sense of pride in Europe’s vast cancer community.

Even though we live in a time of geopolitical instability and insecurity, when so much of what we took for granted is now threatened – including vital healthcare budgets – we gathered together in Brussels and online to address the many challenges before us.

We did not retreat in the face of uncertainty. We did not sidestep the issues. We leaned into them – in one session after another.

You could hear it in the words of the speakers: no denial, no false optimism, just an unflinching commitment to protect the many advances we’ve achieved together through Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the EU Cancer Mission.   

As a psycho-oncologist, I particularly appreciated the insightful discussions we had during the Quality of Life and Survivorship session. We now have more than 23 million cancer survivors in Europe – around 5% of the population. This is staggering. This disease leads to 85,000 cases of depression each year and suicide rates that are 80% higher than in the general EU population.

This session explored how more and more Europeans are surviving cancer nowadays, at least physically surviving. But emotional and psychological survivorship, with dignity and equity, remains out of reach for many Europeans.

Throughout this Summit, I heard countless conversations, both publicly and privately, about how cancer care in Europe is at a crossroads. The EU’s proposed new budget, its Multiannual Financial Framework (2028-2034), is notably short on cancer-specific funding. Yes, the budget negotiations will continue for another year, but we are understandably anxious.

ECO has launched a major public awareness campaign to make our voices heard by policymakers.  But we need to move quickly to ensure the cancer community doesn't lose relevance or momentum in any shifting policies. We also need to move quickly to implement more of the ambitious initiatives we’ve developed on paper.

Implementation is the harder work, the messier work, and it requires sustainable, accountable coordination. But this is the only work that actually changes lives.   

As my term as ECO president draws to a close, allow me to express my immense gratitude to all of you who have joined the fight against this most insidious disease. Time and again, I have seen your strength, your collaboration, your willingness to challenge each other and to share.

But perhaps your most impressive collective quality is your resilience. We never give up. We can’t give up, not until every person affected by cancer receives the support, care, dignity, and hope that they deserve. 

These last two years have been a journey of a lifetime – thanks to you – and I look forward to seeing what our colleague Isabel Rubio has in store when she assumes the presidency in January.

With very best wishes,

Csaba,

Prof. Csaba Dégi