Brussels, 15/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - During its meeting on 23 and 24 April, the European Parliament's Women's Rights Committee will examine the draft report on breast cancer by the German Social Democrat Karin Jöns. Mrs Jöns is proposing for the Parliament to invite the member states to commit to the 2008 target for the creation of the conditions necessary for reducing the 25% rate of mortality on average linked to breast cancer and lowering to 5% the disparities that characterise the five year survival rate in different member states.
The draft report criticises the fact that the European guidelines aimed at ensuring quality with regards to mammograms have only lead to eight out of fifteen States instituting universal screening programs. It invites the member states to offer, as quickly as possible, to all women aged between 50 and 69, every two years, a mammogram in accordance with European guidelines (with a target rate of 70% participation). These screenings should take place in specialised and multidisciplinary centres. Each mammogram should be analysed independently by two radiologists practicing at least 5000 reading per year. The report also calls for every female breast cancer victim having the right to being treated by a multidisciplinary team. It invites the member states to establish networks of multidisciplinary centres fulfilling quality standards: each centre should undertake at least 150 surgical operations per year following an initial diagnostic, and the multidisciplinary team should include specialised surgeons. Moreover, Mrs Jöns suggests the following measures: - holding of a weekly multidisciplinary conference; - clinical research; - continuous training for doctors and healthcare personnel; - the possibility of receiving physiological support and physiotherapy for patients.
The report also calls upon the member states to ensure that: (1) each women be informed of the result of the examination or mammogram within five working days and that the women who are diagnosed with breast cancer be treated within four weeks of diagnosis; (2) when justified from a medical point of view, the woman has the possibility of receiving a pre-emptive treatment, to reduce the number of unnecessary mastectomies and, where possible, the breast be the object of plastic surgery; (3) before any operation, the woman receives a proper diagnosis, notably receiving an biopsy with minimal invasiveness; (4) implant carriers receive a document indicating the type of implant and the necessary post-operative care. The Commission is invited to continue, in the framework of the action programme in the field of public health (2003-2008), the support granted to innovative projects notably to the European breast cancer network and to the prospective research network on cancer and nutrition (EPIC), within the 'Europe against cancer' programme. The report also calls for the Directorates General Health, Research ad Information Society to create a joint website dedicated to cancer. The Commission is invited to organise, by the end of 2003, a conference to assess the 'Europe against cancer' programme.
In her explanatory memorandum, Ms Jöns recalls that breast cancer affected, in 2000, 216,000 women in the European Union and that more than 79,000 died (WHO figures). Breast cancer is the most common cause of deaths in women between the ages of 35 and 55. At present, the organisation and the implementation of the national screening programs present significant divergences. Only eight out of the fifteen EU states (Belgium, Finland, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden) have such a programme. In Italy, Austria and Spain, only regional programmes exist. National programmes have just been launched in Denmark and Portugal, but they do not, as yet, provide universal cover. Germany and Greece are in the pilot project phase.