The European Week Against Cancer (EWAC) is an annual event from 25 to 31 May to raise the awareness of all Europeans towards cancer and take action against it. It is an occasion to learn more about policy and research on cancer, what is key in its prevention, and the lived experiences of patients and cancer survivors. It brings together policymakers, researchers, patients, and advocates to focus on prevention, treatment access, and support for survivors—all working towards a cancer-free Europe.
Pain is a common symptom in cancer survivors and those living with progressive advanced disease, affecting up to 40% of cancer survivors and at least 66% of patients with advanced progressive disease. Evidence from meta‐analyses suggests that poor assessment and inadequate support for patient self‐management still have a huge impact on patients’ experience.
In 2017 EFIC put together a multidisciplinary Task Force of European experts to prepare standards for the appropriate management of cancer-related pain. This culminated in the 2018 EFIC Standards for the management of cancer‐related pain across Europe – A position paper from the EFIC Task Force on Cancer Pain.
In addition to the momentum from the scientific literature, the focus on cancer has also increased in the political arena, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s Political Guidelines for the European Commission 2019-2024 specifically mentioning the need for a European cancer plan. In the ensuing Mission Letter to Stella Kyriakides (Commissioner for Health and Food Safety), Kyriakides was tasked with developing a plan proposing actions to strengthen Europe’s approach at every key stage of cancer: prevention, diagnosis, treatment, life as a cancer survivor, and palliative care.
On the 3rd February 2021, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan (EBCP) was launched, which reflected a political commitment to mobilise the European Union’s collective power to drive change to the benefit of its citizens. The plan, with its policy objectives, supported by ten flagship initiatives and multiple supporting actions, will coordinate and complement Member States’ efforts to reduce the suffering caused by cancer, with the sole aim of tackling the entire disease pathway. Hence, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan was released in February 2021.
In September 2020 SIP launched its Position Paper on Cancer-related Pain, in which it called upon European Institutions and national governments to improve cancer-related pain policies. Specifically, the Paper called for establishing pain as a quality indicator, referencing standards for cancer-related pain in cancer policies (such as the EFIC Standards), making resources available for cancer care and treatment services, and encouraging the provision of education and training in pain assessment and management.
This coincided with the development and launch of the European Commission’s Beating Cancer Plan. SIP provided input to the Commission’s Roadmap and public consultation process, and organised a special multi-stakeholder event to discuss the plan’s implementation and next steps.
Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan has several Flagship initiatives and supporting actions that are of particular interest to SIP, such as:
Flagship 1: Creation of the Knowledge Centre on Cancer.
Flagship 5: Making an EU Network of National Comprehensive Cancer Centres and developing of an Inter-speciality Cancer Training Programme.
Flagship 9: Setting up a Cancer Inequalities Registry.
Creation of a Stakeholder Contact Group.
The momentum triggered the creation of the Special Committee on Beating Cancer of the European Parliament. The Committee was tasked with establishing a set of concrete recommendations for the member states and the EU institutions to strengthen our resilience against cancer. The Committee’s work culminated with the publishing of the ‘Report on strengthening Europe in the fight against cancer – towards a comprehensive and coordinated strategy’.
In this regard, SIP carried out external engagement on the topic and met with more than 20 key EU policymakers from the European Institutions and Member States to discuss recommendations for cancer pain policy. For example, SIP met with Dolors Montserrat (PPE, Spain), Margarita de la Pisa (ECR, Spain), Sara Cerdas (S&D, Portugal), Irena Joveva (Renew, Slovenia), and Marian-Jean Marinescu (PPE, Romania) amongst many others.
SIP had the opportunity to feed into this report and include concrete recommendations based on its recently published position paper on workplace integration and adaptation, which defends the adaptation of the workplace for people living with pain, such as cancer patients and cancer survivors, as well as their reintegration into society and workplaces.
SIP’s multi-stakeholder cancer pain policy event took place in early March 2021, and welcomed over 75 delegates from across Europe, and was hosted and supported by several members of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Beating Cancer (BECA). The event also included speakers from the European Commission, Member States, and cancer pain experts, such as Alessandra Moretti (Italy, S&D), Sirpa Pietikäinen (Finland, EPP), Stefan Schreck (DG SANTE), and produced several recommendations based upon both SIP’s Cancer Position Paper and discussions during the breakout sessions of the event itself.
These recommendations linked both the activities of SIP and EFIC, but also ensured the PAE and patient perspective, and the need for national implementation, such as the fact that pain and in particular, cancer pain, should be adopted as a quality indicator in European health systems performance and assessment processes (for example, via Flagship 5 and the EU Network linking National Comprehensive Cancer Centres, and Flagship 9 and the Cancer Inequalities Registry). Additionally, recommendations on the importance of focusing specific attention on the education and training of healthcare professionals in the field of pain and patients access to high quality cancer pain management across Europe, throughout the cancer patient journey, were also drafted.
In line with SIP’s current priorities and area of focus, a recommendation was drafted stating that the ICD-11 classification of cancer-related pain, and exchange of best practices (such as the EFIC Standards), should be considered within the implementation of the Beating Cancer Plan.
For more information on cancer-related initiatives, please visit the European Week Against Cancer (EWAC) website at: https://www.cancer.eu/european-week-against-cancer-european-week-against-cancer/