27 Jan. Childhood Cancer: No equal access to adequate treatment across the EU
This article is unfortunately only available in German.
A cancer diagnosis means great suffering for patients and their families, with illnesses in children being particularly tragic. The EU Commission therefore presented the European Beating Cancer Plan in 2020 with the aim of reducing the burden of cancer on patients, their families and healthcare systems. However, access to adequate treatment for childhood cancer is still unevenly distributed in Europe.
Within the EU, there are differences of up to 20 percent in the survival rate due to unequal access to standard treatments and essential medicines, mostly caused by social factors. In addition, drugs are developed more frequently for adult cancers than for children, as this is often more economically interesting for companies. Overall, fewer children are diagnosed with cancer than adults, especially as the disease can manifest itself very differently in children. And yet, although childhood cancer is one of the so-called rare diseases, it is the most common cause of death from disease in children over the age of one, and the number of cases is rising. Every year, around 20,000 cases are diagnosed in the EU, of which 6,000 cannot be cured. Due to comparatively outdated treatment methods and medication, at least 30 percent of surviving children have serious late effects in adulthood.
Cure rates for children are still stagnating, which is largely due to a lack of market-driven innovations in the fight against cancer. There is an urgent need to catch up here!
Science does not yet fully understand why the number of childhood cancers is rising and the corresponding risk factors cannot yet be fully assessed. In order to improve cancer prevention in children, more and further research into the triggers and risk factors is therefore needed.
In the Special Committee on Cancer MEPs will question ten leading cancer research experts on the treatment of childhood and rare cancers in a public hearing on Thursday, January 28. A particular focus will be placed on social factors for access to effective cancer treatment.
Background information on the public hearing of 28.01.2021 of the Special Committee on Combating Cancer.
Manuela Ripa, MEP of the Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP), is a member of the Special Committee on Cancer Prevention in the European Parliament and is calling for a ban on carcinogenic environmental toxins, so-called endocrine disruptors, in everyday objects such as food packaging, cosmetics and children's toys.
Manuela Ripa recognizes the problem of inequalities in the fight against childhood cancer across the EU and the need for better cross-border cooperation and data sharing: "The fight against childhood cancer requires individual medical approaches that do not go hand in hand with the therapies of adult cancer patients. Cure rates for children have stagnated to date, which is largely due to a lack of market-driven innovations in the fight against cancer. There is an urgent need to catch up!"
With this in mind, Manuela Ripa met with representatives of the European Society for Paediatric Cancer (SIOPE Europe), the Society for Paediatric Oncology and Haematology and the German Childhood Cancer Foundation last year. Among other things, the causes of childhood cancer and better cross-border cooperation and data exchange between the member states were discussed.