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Joint Action on Cancer, CANCON

Published on 22 September 2016 back to previous

The second Joint Action on cancer, CANCON, an EU funded initiative, is coming to a close and was the host at a stakeholders meeting last week. The report and policy recommendations on the Joint Action will be published in January with a final conference in February. Over two days last week we were given an update from work package leaders on progress and the outcomes being drawn into the final report.

The areas this Joint Action covered were agreed in consultation with Member States, these were Screening; Survivorship and Rehabilitation; Integrated Cancer Control and Community Level Cancer Care.

EuropaColon was asked to make a presentation reviewing the work being done – all interesting activity and some very exciting. Perhaps the greatest impact for patients will be the recommendation that everyone at point of diagnosis should receive a Survivorship Care Plan. This will be updated regularly during the patient experience to provide support beyond the clinical experience.

In addition to the work packages, an important element will be work looking at the inequalities that exist between Member States. Currently there is an 8 year difference between the best and worse performing countries and this is seldom the consequence of the amount of money spent on cancer per capita in the country.

The second day was a meeting of the Italian Cancer League and it was interesting to see the passion and enthusiasm that local MPs and MEPs have for cancer care.

In all, the two days presented a good opportunity to exchange views and hear new thoughts on options for delivering improvements in cancer care across Europe.