Thousands of people are diagnosed with lung cancer in Europe every year and sadly this is the biggest cancer killer. Lung cancer is one of the major public health problems today and it requires a global solution. As patient advocates, we are really committed to networking with other stakeholders in order to reduce incidence and mortality, and improve quality of life of patients and their family members. Download LuCE’s Final Report
But these are not easy challenges even when some preventive measures related to tobacco are being implemented and diagnostic tools and therapies are more effective and safe nowadays.
The situation is heterogeneous across Europe and causes persisting inequities, particularly in the eastern part. LuCE aims to identify these disparities and works to get that every European patient has the same right of access to best treatment and care as possible, without discrimination on the basis of place of residence.
In response to that, LuCE is working with health authorities and the scientific community to face our challenges in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.
On November 16th 2016, LuCE held an event at the European Parliament (Brussels) to raise awareness among different stakeholders and get their commitment with lung cancer challenges.
This event was realized in collaboration with the Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL) and it was hosted by MEP Alojz Peterle,President of MAC.
Patients, politicians, physicians, patient advocates, journalists, pharmaceutical companies and other stakeholders participated in this event, in which the current situation of lung cancer in Europe was showed from different perspectives.
This was an excellent opportunity to propose calls for action, encouraging the attendees to give a step forward, and try working together to get improvement in early detection, accurate diagnosis, more effective and safe treatments and faster access to innovative therapies, ensuring sustainability of different health-care systems.
During the event, LuCE launched the LuCE Report on Lung Cancer: Challenges in lung cancer in Europe. This report analyses the current lung cancer landscape in Europe and highlights patients´ and caregivers´ priorities, needs and proposals, encouraging health authorities, health professionals, companies, patient organizations and the society to implement solutions. This is the first in a row of annual reports on LC that LuCE will release in upcoming years.
This report aims to be a tool for different national and EU level stakeholders, used as a source of reliable data to show how severe the problem is and how it needs to be addressed.
We want to thank all the speakers and participants of this roundtable for their presence and commitment. We hope that the LuCE statement that was signed during the event on your commitment in the fight against lung cancer will help us to work better and join forces in order to get a bigger influence to face the challenges of lung cancer in EU.
Documents: LuCE’s Final Report