European Week Against Cancer kick-off: prevention and early detection save lives

The European Week Against Cancer (EWAC) takes place between 25 and 31 May each year to promote awareness on cancer prevention, access to treatment and support for patients and cancer survivors.

The week focuses on seven themes: primary prevention, early detection, cancer research, access to treatment, patients & survivors, digital health, and World No-Tobacco Day.

Prevention & early detection

The European Commission considers the fight against cancer one of its top health priorities.

Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the EU Mission on Cancer are the EU’s response to growing challenges and developments in cancer.

HaDEA is contributing to these by funding actions and projects on cancer prevention and early detection under the programmes  EU4Health and Horizon Europe health research (Cluster 1), successor of Horizon 2020. 

EU4Health

The 2021 and 2022 EU4Health Annual Work programmes fund several actions on cancer including cancer prevention and cancer-screening programmes as early detection strategies.

HaDEA recently closed a call for tenders to design, develop, pilot and deliver an ‘EU Mobile App for Cancer Prevention’. This interactive app will inform users on what they can do to reduce their cancer risks.

Horizon Europe Cluster 1 ‘Health’

HaDEA has launched a Cancer Mission call to identify and address the bottlenecks and barriers to cancer prevention programmes and ensure their smooth operation at local, regional or national level.

Horizon 2020 funded research projects

VOGAS 

The VOGAS project is developing a non-invasive gastric cancer-screening breath analyser for detecting characteristic patterns of chemicals called Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).

MyPEBS

MyPeBS (My Personal Breast Screening) promotes personalised breast cancer screening for women aged 40 to 70. The ultimate goal is to analyse the benefits of a personalised approach based on a prior individual risk assessment.

Background

Since 2003, the first, second and third health programmes have implemented the EU health strategy. The EU4Health programme is the latest and largest one to date in monetary terms, with a budget of €5.3 billion in current prices. EU4Health provides funding to national authorities, health organisations and other bodies through grants and public procurement, contributing to a healthier Europe.

Horizon 2020 (H2020) was the EU’s multiannual funding programme between 2014 and 2020. H2020 provided Research and Innovation (R&I) funding for multi-national collaboration projects as well as for individual researchers and SMEs via special funding instruments. Horizon 2020 continues as Horizon Europe programme which will run until 2027.

Relevant links

More from the series:

European Week Against Cancer continues: focus on researching effective treatments

European Week Against Cancer comes to an end: ensuring better quality of life for patients and survivors

EU Cancer policy

European Health Union