More research, more prevention: the EU wants to work together to fight cancer. For Commissioner von der Leyen, the fight against the disease is not an issue like any other.
By Helga Schmidt, ARD studio Brussels
The chances of surviving cancer in the European Union depend very much on where you live. In Romania, a woman with cervical cancer is 16 times more likely to die than a woman in Italy. With this example, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen shook the audience in the Brussels forum.
And a spokesman for cancer-stricken adolescents made it even clearer: in parts of Eastern Europe it was a lottery win if you had access to modern therapies.
Personal experiences
The new EU Commission wants to make cancer control a priority for the next five years. It is not an issue like any other, so von der Leyen, because so many people have had their very personal experiences with the struggle, the pain and the resistance.
Her sister’s childhood cancer death meant that the fight against the disease was always a political concern for her.
Prevention and research
The European program to fight cancer will be ready by the end of this year. The focus is on prevention and research. In the future, data will be exchanged across Europe: how cancer develops, which therapies have been successful and which have not. Such information should be collected centrally so that researchers from all EU countries can work with it.
The data was valuable, said the commissioner and doctor von der Leyen. They contained many missed opportunities, unknown improvements and also the opportunity to correct incorrect assumptions.
Fight for support from member countries
What are the causes of the various cancers? The answer to this question is also hoped for by Peter Liese, who, as a MEP, helped to drive the initiative. “We know that 20 percent of cancer cases are caused by smoking. We also know that two percent come from excessive alcohol consumption. We know relatively little about environmental factors, air pollutants, chemicals.”
How far the Commission’s program to fight cancer will go is still open. Because health policy is in the hands of national governments. The Brussels Commission has few competencies here and will have to fight for the support of each member country.
