Brussels, 14/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has adopted a resolution on combating cancer by the overwhelming majority of 621 votes to 10, with six abstentions, and, in so doing, has called on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to take appropriate action on prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment, including palliative care, in order to reduce the significant approaching increase in the burden of cancer. In the text adopted on Thursday 10 April, it calls on the Commission to set up an inter-institutional EU Cancer Task Force composed of members from the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament which will meet regularly, to collect and exchange best practice for prevention, (including reducing occupational and environmental exposure to carcinogens and other substances contributing to the development of cancer), screening and treatment and to provide leadership for improved cancer control in Europe.
Parliament urges the member states to implement statutory cancer registration with European standardised terminology in order to provide the capacity for population-based evaluation of prevention, screening and treatment programmes, survival rates and comparability of data between Member States. It calls on the Commission to revise the existing Recommendation on cancer screening to take account of the rapid development of new technologies and to include: (a) more types of cancer, and (b) additional techniques of early diagnosis when these are warranted scientifically.
Parliament urges the governments of the Czech Republic and Italy, to ratify the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which came into force in February 2005. It calls on the Commission and all Member States to develop and support strong protocols and guidelines when implementing the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and to ensure that resources are available to help low-income countries to meet their obligations under the Convention. Parliament calls on the Commission and member states to support and implement comprehensive tobacco control policies including smoke free environments and smoking cessation interventions, as effective methods for reducing the incidence of smoking and thus prevent a large number of cancer deaths, in line with its resolution of 24 October 2007 on the Green Paper “Towards a Europe free from tobacco smoke: policy options at EU level”, the recommendations in which must now be fully implemented.
Parliament calls on the Commission, the Member States and the European Chemicals Agency to adopt the candidate list of substances of very high concern, which includes substances that are carcinogenic, as a top priority before 1 June 2008, so as to make possible the application of Article 33(2) of REACH, which allows consumers to request information about carcinogens in consumer items, enabling them to avoid such items if they so desire.
The Commission and member states are also urged promote information campaigns on cancer screening directed at the general public and all healthcare providers, as well as exchange of best practice on the use of preventive or early-detection measures, such as cost-effective integration of appropriate human papilloma virus (HPV) testing for cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination to protect young women from cervical cancer, or the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test for the early detection of prostate cancer in men over 50 years of age. Parliament calls on member states to make nationwide provision for multidisciplinary oncology teams to give optimal individual treatment to all patients, and to improve training of oncologists and healthcare professionals. It calls on the Commission to deploy funds from the Structural Funds and the Seventh Framework Programme for Research to create and fund reference networks for rare and difficult-to-treat cancers.
Parliament urges the Commission and member states to ensure that cancer medicines are uniformly available to all patients who need them in all member states. It encourages the Commission and member states to examine, within the high-level Pharmaceutical Forum, how innovative life-saving cancer medicines can be made available more speedily to patients by accelerating fast-track marketing approval through the EU Centralised Procedure and to consider a conditional pricing and reimbursement process, while data on the value of the medicine is collected on patients in real-life settings. It calls on the Commission to draw up a charter for the protection of cancer patients and chronically sick people in the workplace with a view to requiring companies to enable patients to continue in employment during their treatment and to return to their normal professional activities. It encourages the Member States to adopt national Charters of Patients' Rights in accordance with European guidelines and to include patient participation and expertise in the development of health policies. (O.J.)