EU-wide cancer approach 'needed'

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Better Europe-wide coordination is needed to tackle cancer, a group of leading experts say.

There are 3m new cases and 1.7m deaths a year from the disease - making it the second biggest killer on the continent.

But experts, commissioned by Slovenia, which has made cancer a priority during its six-month presidency of the EU, said closer-working was needed.

The report called for a European cancer taskforce to oversee prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.

Health remains the responsibility of the individual 27 member states.

But the report said the EU had a over-arching responsibility for public health and could still make cancer a priority.

We should be focusing more on screening and prevention Lynn Faulds Wood, campaigner

It said there was likely to be a 20% increase in the cases of cancer by 2020.

While many of these will be linked to an ageing population, a third of cancers can still be prevented through changes to lifestyle, such as diet and exercising.

The report cited the coordination of pricing policies as a way of influencing alcohol and tobacco consumption.

But the experts, who included leading members of public health institutes across Europe, also said countries could learn from each other in areas such as screening, use of drugs, palliative care and research.

In particular, they suggested centres of excellence could be created for rare cancers.

The UK was praised for its approach to screening and the integration between GPs and hospitals, but the experts pointed out it still lagged behind on survival rates.

The Eurocare study of 23 countries showed last year that five-year survival rates in lung, breast, prostate and colorectal cancer were lower in the UK compared with everywhere except eastern Europe. This was put down to delays diagnosing the disease.

'Struggle'

The report is to be discussed at a two-day conference of cancer experts and EU officials on Thursday and Friday with the aim of getting the EU to adopt a policy on the issue.

Report author Professor Michel Coleman said: "There is a huge volume of avoidable cases of cancer diagnosed. It is the duty of the EU to address cancer as a public health problem."

Professor Karol Sikora, a cancer expert at London's Imperial College, who also contributed to the report, said drug treatments were being developed at a rapid pace.

He said without more coordination countries would struggle to pay for them.

"Lets learn the best from what is being done."

And Lynn Faulds Wood, the broadcaster and bowel cancer campaigner, who is now president of the European Cancer Patient Coalition, said countries were getting the balance wrong between drugs and prevention.

"Most of the money is spent at the end on so-called life-saving drugs which really prolong life. We should be focusing more on screening and prevention."