Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Europe. Moreover, it’s the leading cause of death for women and men under 65. In 2022, new cancer cases reached 2.7 million and the incidence increased for 2.3% in comparison with 2020. In the same period, estimated cancer deaths increased for 2.4 % to 1.3 million (JRC Cancer Estimates 2022 Factsheet).
Due to ageing population and other circumstances, the cancer burden is expected to considerably increase in the forthcoming years – expected cancer cases by 18.3% and cancer deaths by 26.3% from 2022 to 2040 (Review of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan).
Europe already introduced many actions to fight the cancer in the past – from tobacco and alcohol control, protection from hazardous substances, awareness and screening programmes to Europe’s action plan in early 1990s.
One of the latest European Commission broad initiatives was presented on 3 February 2021 as Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan with € 4 billion for cancer initiatives and actions. In this amount are included € 1.25 billion from the EU4Health programme, with additional financial resources through the Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programmes.
Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan main action areas are focused on:
- Saving lives through sustainable cancer prevention.
- Improving early detection of cancer.
- Ensuring high standards in cancer care (diagnosis and treatment).
- Improving the quality of life for cancer patients and survivors.
The implementation of the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan is well underway after almost five years since its introduction. Current results (Review of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan) show progress on most of the areas. New initiatives were established (e.g. European Cancer Imaging Initiative and European Cancer Inequalities Registry, EU Network of Youth Cancer survivors, HealthyLifestyles4All), different schemes were introduced (e.g. EU school schemes for distribution of healthy food to children), new regulations, directives and legislation were adopted … and many more actions and steps were taken in order to fight the cancer, raise awareness and improve the quality of life of patients.
Important activity of improving all four Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan’s areas is also through research and the programmes like EU4Health, Horizon Europe and Digital Europe. Only in the scope of the Horizon Europe 898 cancer-focused projects in a total amount of € 2.086 billion were selected for funding as of December 2024 (Review of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan) and new calls for project proposals are constantly being published to include as many research activities as possible. In the line of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan main action areas, the IFIGENEIA project is for example one of the Horizon Europe projects that supports research, diagnostics, therapy, and theragnostic by utilizing Linear Accelerator (LINAC) technology. If you are interested how is the IFIGENEIA project focused on the cancer research, you are welcome to check the Frequently Asked Questions section on our website.