Prevention
Eliminate cervical cancer caused by Human papillomavirus
One of the goals of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan is to eliminate cervical cancer by vaccinating young people against the Human papillomavirus (HPV) that causes it and is also linked to head and neck and anal cancers.
Specifically, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan calls for vaccinating at least 90% of the EU’s target population of girls and for significantly increasing the vaccination rate among boys.
In June 2024 - after a Commission proposal - the Council Recommendation on vaccine-preventable cancers was adopted to support EU countries in boosting the uptake of vaccination against Human Papillomaviruses (HPV) and Hepatitis B virus (HBV).
Recommendations to EU countries include facilitating access to vaccination, targeted communication on the importance of HPV and HBV vaccination in a cancer prevention perspective and better monitoring of vaccination coverage rates to inform public health action.
Several Joint Actions and EU-funded projects support HPV vaccination. Funded by the EU4Health programme, the Joint Action SHIELD (Strategies for Health Interventions to Eliminate Infection related Cancers) supports Member States in increasing HPV and HBV vaccination coverage, enhancing monitoring systems, and developing comprehensive biomedical prevention programmes targeting HPV and HBV, as well as Hepatitis C, HIV and Tuberculosis.
Previously, the Joint Action on PartnERship to Contrast HPV (JA PERCH), supported Member States’ efforts to extend the roll-out of routine HPV vaccination.
Additionally, the Commission supported the development of a Communication Model for Building Awareness and Countering Misinformation and Disinformation on HPV and HBV Vaccination, which provides practical guidance to Member States for evidence-based public communication. Through the Joint Action SHIELD, this model will be translated into concrete awareness-raising campaigns promoting HPV and HBV vaccination as effective cancer prevention tools.
Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable and treatable forms of cancer. It is the second most common cancer after breast cancer to affect women aged 15to 44 years in the EU, but HPV can cause cancer in both women and men. Each year, there are around 28 000 cases of cervical cancer in the EU, and 13 000 deaths.
In May 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) set a target of 90% coverage of HPV vaccination in girls by 2030 in the Global strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem.
In the EU, HPV vaccination has been gradually introduced in national immunisation programmes since 2007, but policies and vaccination coverage rates vary across countries.
Early detection
EU Cancer Screening Scheme
In the best possible world, cancer would be prevented entirely. The next best scenario would be detecting all cancers early, which greatly increases the chances for survivorship.
The EU Cancer Screening Scheme marks a new approach to strengthening cancer prevention through early detection.
In 2022, the new Council Recommendation on Cancer Screening was an important step to improve early detection in the EU.
This new EU approach, based on the latest available scientific developments and evidence, will help ensure that 90% of the EU population who qualify for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screenings are offered these types of screenings.
The Recommendation also calls for extending screening programmes to prostate, lung and, under certain circumstances, gastric cancer, based on further research. It will help to reduce inequalities and disparities between Member States.
Financial support for boosting cancer screening is available, with ca. EUR 80 million already committed for projects under the EU4Health Programme. An additional EUR 95 million have been mobilised under Horizon Europe, aimed at bringing novel screening technology closer to the market, and piloting innovative screening approaches in Member States and associated countries, for example, through early detection of people at risk of hereditary cancers.
The Joint Action EUCanScreen is the main action to support the implementation of the Council Recommendation on cancer screening. Supported with EU funding of EUR 31 million, it is running from June 2024 to May 2028. This action aims to address barriers and promote facilitators in cancer screening. It is conducting implementation research to improve more established screening programmes (for breast, colorectal and cervical cancer) and facilitate the implementation of newer screening approaches (for lung, prostate and gastric cancer). It is also gathering and disseminating knowledge and resources on risk-based screening approaches; the tools of modelling and health technology assessment, and capacity-building activities.
To further support the EU Cancer Screening Scheme, the European Commission ran the #GetScreenedEU campaign to raise awareness of the need for and benefits of cancer screening.
The campaign ran from 2023 to 2025 and targeted adults aged 40 to 60, in particular those from disadvantaged backgrounds. It had a special focus in Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Malta, Poland and Romania, where the Commission partnered with relevant national authorities to run targeted communications activities.
Having access to high-quality screening is critical to accurately detect cancer at the earliest stage possible. That’s why the European Commission has been developing and updating European guidelines to assure high-quality screening of breast and colorectal cancers and complementary recommendations on diagnosis, together with quality assurance schemes.
In collaboration with WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the previous guidelines on cervical cancer are also being updated and quality assurance developed.
Finally, work has started to develop European guidelines and quality assurance schemes also for lung, prostate and gastric cancer screening and care.
These efforts are coordinated by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre under the umbrella of the Commission Initiatives on Cancer Screening and Care.
Diagnosis and Treatment
EU network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres
Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan calls for setting up an EU Network of National Comprehensive Cancer Centres by 2025 to link national multicentric complexes at EU-level.
These multicentric complexes manage all aspects of cancer care, and the EU Cancer Plan aims to ensure that 90% of eligible patients have access to such centres by 2030.
This EU Network will make it easier for Member States to provide citizens with screenings and cancer care that meets the standards set by European guidelines and quality assurance schemes for population-based screening programmes.
This same quality assurance will apply to training, research and clinical trials across the Union.
This flagship objective is also clearly connected to the European Health Data Space and the European Digital Cancer Patient Centre, and its work will help meet the EU4HealthProgramme’s general objective of improving and fostering health in the EU.
Two Joint Actions with Member States have been launched to support the creation of this EU Network: the Network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres (JA CraNE) and its follow-up action Comprehensive Cancer Centre Network (EUnetCCC). The 2025 Annual meeting of EUnetCCC has marked the official launch of the Network on 7 November 2025.
Two consecutive Joint Actions (JANE, JANE-2) have been launched to support the establishment and integration of seven new European Networks of Expertise focusing on oncology areas that could benefit from information exchange and cross-border collaboration, namely complex and poor prognosis cancers, palliative care, survivorship, personalised prevention, omics technologies, high tech medical resources, and adolescents and young adults with cancer.
The EU Cancer Mission is complementing the set-up of the EU network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres. The Mission aims to achieve the target of ensuring that 90% of eligible cancer patients have access to Comprehensive Cancer Infrastructures (CCIs) by 2030. In that context, a Coordinating and Support Action (CSA) CCI4EU Comprehensive Cancer Infrastructures for the European Union was funded.
Cancer Diagnostic and Treatment for All
Cancer is strongly driven by genomic modifications, and new technological approaches are now available for diagnostic, therapeutic and personalised risk-assessment for prevention. These new approaches are helping to prevent cancer and improve the chances for recovery and survivorship and should be accessible to all EU citizens.
As with any technological advance, there must also be guidelines and best practices that guarantee a viable and high standard of performance.
The ‘Cancer Diagnostic and Treatment for All’ initiative is helping Member States improve access for individuals, cancer patients and survivors to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through personalised medicine and the use of the latest innovations in cancer care.
This initiative aims to foster the use of ‘next generation sequencing’ technology for a quick and efficient application of personalised cancer diagnosis and treatment.
It helps share the results of the genetic profiling of patients and tumour cells, allowing cancer centres to apply the same or similar diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to patients with comparable cancer profiles across the Union.
Three projects financed under the 2021 EU4Health Work Programme have been launched under this flagship initiative. One of the projects has contributed to the EU Cancer and Public Health Genomics platform, another with diagnostics and survival for children with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and a third one leveraged personalised approaches to support access to repurposed oncology medicines. Building on the results of these three projects, a Member State-led Joint Action (JA PCM – Joint Action Personalised Cancer Medicine) kicked off in January 2026 and will focus on encouraging the further uptake of personalised cancer medicine, especially in European countries still lagging behind.
European Initiative to Understand Cancer
The flagship UNCAN.eu, a European initiative to UNderstand CANcer, is designed to facilitate and enhance data-driven cancer research. Its objectives include establishing a sustainable European network of National Cancer Data Nodes that operate in alignment with the European Health Data Space, improving the usability and quality of cancer digital assets, and fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing among cancer research institutions.
Quality of life of cancer patients and survivors
Better life for cancer patients initiative
Getting a diagnosis of cancer is devastating and going through treatment can be debilitating.
Patients and their caregivers need clear information and emotional and social support, yet cancer survivors often report difficulties in communicating with oncologists, general practitioners and nurses, and in establishing contact with social services.
In line with the objectives of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, a prototype ‘Cancer Survivor Smart Card’ has been developed to explore ways of facilitating communication between patients, survivors, and care providers. Serving as a proof of concept, the prototype reflects lessons learned during the project.
Another factor in ensuring a higher quality of life is reducing the discrimination cancer patients and survivors often confront. Europe's Beating Cancer Plan supported exchanges between patients, healthcare professionals and industry for the development of a code of conduct supporting fair access to financial services for the increasing number of survivors in long-term remission.
Some Member States have already taken steps to protect patients' Right to be Forgotten’, so that cancer patients and survivors do not face employment, financial or social discrimination.
As some cancers are now being considered as chronic diseases due to better treatments, more patients and survivors will be able to remain on the job or return to work. Yet, those who remain in the workforce must be given adequate social protection and benefit from supportive/rehabilitation/reintegration measures.
To facilitate Member States‘ efforts in these areas, the Commission has published a study on job retention and return to work for cancer patients and survivors in 2024. The study maps measures in the Member States to support those with a history of cancer to remain in and return to work, as well as remaining gaps and challenges.
It further identifies good practice examples, and, based on how these measures address the identified challenges, the study also recommends future actions for Member States and further stakeholders to consider.
Cancer patients and survivors, their families and caregivers all need access to information. The Commission is working to provide them with a virtual knowledge centre, the European Cancer Patient Digital Centre (ECPDC), where they can find in-depth information on topics like prevention, diagnosis, treatment guidelines, treatment side-effects and access to cross-border health care.
The ECPCD will be a federated network of patient-controlled (national) health data infrastructures and will allow the voluntary exchange of patients’ and survivors’ health data for primary and secondary use.
Projects launched in 2024 (ALTHEA, DESIPOC and MELODIC) are also addressing the considerable mental health challenges of cancer patients and survivors.
Reducing inequalities
Cancer Inequalities Registry
The European Cancer Inequalities Registry (ECIR) aims to identify trends and disparities in cancer prevention and care between Member States and regions, to guide targeted investments and interventions at EU, national and regional levels.
President Von der Leyen launched the flagship on 2 February 2022 with its first milestone, the ECIR website and Data Tool. The data tool allows users to explore data on cancer burden, prevention, treatment and care by various inequality dimensions, such as differences between countries, sex, age, education, income, level of urbanisation, disability and employment status.
A key deliverable of the initiative is a series of 29 Country Cancer Profiles (one for each Member State, plus Iceland and Norway), complemented by Analytical EU reports. These reports allow us to track progress over time and identify remaining challenges ahead.
The Country Cancer Profiles provide insights into cancer burden, prevention and care across European countries. The second edition was published on 3 February 2025 and includes the Synthesis report and the Country Performance Tracker. This powerful tool analyses country performance compared to the EU level for a selected number of cancer indicators.
Analytical EU reports provide a horizontal analysis of the situation on cancer care across the EU 27, Norway and Iceland. Two editions have been published in 2024 and 2026. The latest report focuses on “Delivering High Value Cancer Care” and provides a cross-country analysis on timely access to care, providing efficient and evidence-based care, and patient-centred approaches to improve cancer patients’ health outcomes and quality of life.
The Cancer Inequalities Registry is governed by the European Commission - Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) and prepared in close collaboration with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
Childhood/Paediatric cancer
Helping Children with Cancer
The “Helping Children with Cancer” flagship acts as an umbrella initiative, supporting the development of tools to share best practices, strengthen professional training, and improve access to timely diagnosis and high-quality treatment.
Complementing this effort, the EU Network of Youth Cancer Survivors was launched in February 2022 to enhance the quality of life of young cancer survivors. A follow-up action, initiated in July 2025, aims to sustain and further expand the network, promoting connection and enabling young patients and survivors to share experiences and information, feel less isolated, and engage with peers who truly understand their journey.
In parallel, several ongoing projects contribute to the Cancer Plan’s cross-cutting focus on childhood cancer. These include the establishment of new Networks of Expertise, among them a dedicated Network for adolescents and young adults, designed to address the distinct medical and psychosocial challenges faced by this population.
Advancing training and continuous professional education remains a key priority, notably through the development and implementation of an inter-specialty cancer training programme across 100 European cancer centres, featuring a dedicated module on paediatric cancer.
At the same time, other initiatives are expanding social services for psychosocial support and rehabilitation for children and their families within paediatric oncology settings (IMPACT-EU and ON-COME), while continued efforts to improve quality and broaden access to paediatric palliative care (Joint Action Hope4Kids) are further enhancing the overall quality of life for young patients and survivors.
Complementing this work, the EU Cancer Mission launched in 2022 a long-term dialogue with children, adolescent and young adult cancer patients, survivors and their caregivers, hosting thematic workshops and conferences to better understand their specific needs and co-develop innovative solutions. These efforts have delivered tangible outcomes, including a EUR 36 million Horizon Europe Cancer Mission research topic addressing the understanding and management of late effects of treatments.
More in general, cancer in children, adolescents and young adults is systematically prioritised in all research topics funded by the EU Cancer Mission, with at least 20% of its budget committed to date to power cutting-edge research in youth cancer, across the entire cancer continuum.
In addition, the EU Cancer Mission will deliver a platform to boost mental health of young cancer survivors, a flagship of the Commission’s communication on a Comprehensive approach to mental health. A EUR 7 million innovation action has been included in the 2026 Cancer Mission annual work programme to support the development of the platform, as a specific module of the European Cancer Patients Digital Centre.
Research and innovation, digital and personalised medicine
Knowledge Centre on Cancer
A new Knowledge Centre on Cancer was launched in 2021 within the Joint Research Centre to help coordinate scientific and technical cancer-related initiatives at EU level. Although the Knowledge Centre on Cancer does not provide clinical information directly to individual cancer patients, it contributes indirectly to the overall improvement of EU-level approaches to tackling cancer.
The Knowledge Centre on Cancer brings independent, scientific/evidence-based information through established cancer systems, portals and platforms, providing support for policy making on cancer prevention, early detection, treatment and survivorship. Its four main areas of activities are:
- The European Cancer Information System, which monitors and projects the burden of cancer in Europe in collaboration with over 150 registries contained within the European Network of Cancer Registries
- The European Guidelines and Quality Assurance Schemes for Cancer Screening, Diagnosis and Care, which provide essential levels of quality care that are equally accessible across Europe
- The Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Knowledge Gateway, which compiles independent, scientific and up-to-date information on the prevention of cancer (and other non-communicable diseases)
- The European Platform on Rare Disease Registration, which addresses the fragmentation of rare disease patient data (including rare cancers) contained in numerous registries across Europe, making registries interoperable.
The European Cancer Inequalities Registry, also part of the Knowledge Centre on Cancer, provides sound and reliable data on cancer burden, prevention, treatment and care. This data is used to identify cancer trends and disparities between and within Member States and regions.
In addition, through the Cancer Projects Tool, the Knowledge Centre on Cancer showcases cancer-related projects funded by the EU4Health and Horizon Europe funding mechanisms, highlighting synergies between them.
European Cancer Imaging Initiative
The European Cancer Imaging Initiative aims to aim is to foster innovation and the use of digital technologies in cancer treatment and care, helping clinicians make faster and more accurate decisions, improving diagnosis and treatment, and supporting predictive medicine tailored to each patient.
At its core is the Cancer Image Europe Platform, developed by the EUCAIM project with support from the DIGITAL EUROPE Programme. This federated infrastructure links hospitals, research centres and repositories across Europe, giving secure, privacy-preserving access to cancer imaging and related clinical data for AI development, testing and validation. By December 2026, it will host more than 100.000 anonymised cases and provide access to at least 50 AI algorithms and clinical prediction models.
The Platform creates a collaborative framework for healthcare providers, data scientists, researchers and innovators, enabling multi-country AI validation studies, while respecting data protection rules. This evidence supports clinical adoption of next-generation cancer diagnostics and treatments.
EUCAIM builds on the achievements of the AI for Health Imaging Network, covering five large EU-funded projects - Chaimeleon, EuCanImage, ProCancer-I, Incisive and Primage.
The collaborative network currently involves 95 organisations from 17 countries. Two EU4Health projects launched in 2025, BreastScan and UNICA, complement and expand the geographical reach of the Initiative.
