EBC has joined like-minded European health organisations in signing a joint statement calling for making cancer-related complications and comorbidities an EU health priority.
Cancer-related complications and comorbidities – many neurological or psychiatric – are a highly significant, and in many cases fatal, burden on patients across Europe but are all too often neglected in policy and research.
Cancer is set to become a top health priority for the next five years in the EU, with both the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, and Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, having made clear that cancer will play a central role in their policy agenda and that the output will be an EU Beating Cancer Plan.
It is time to increase the attention given to cancer patients’ long-term well-being and quality of life, addressing the often debilitating comorbidities and complications of cancer, both in terms of the disease itself and its treatments. An increasing population of survivors with needs for long-term follow-up care and management of comorbid conditions will place a substantial burden on health systems, as well as on informal carers who provide essential support to them.
It is crucial that, with this renewed focus on cancer, we take an integrated approach to ensure better health for all European patients.
Read the full statement below:
Joint statement - Making cancer-related complications and comorbidities an EU health priority 10Feb2020_final
See related: Brain Awareness Week Event: The Brain and Cancer