Towards a European Cancer Information System: Status October 2016

Abstract

Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the European Union. In 2009, the European Commission adopted the Communication on Action Against Cancer: European Partnership which defines several objectives for reducing the burden of cancer in Europe. Evaluation of measures to implement this goal is critically dependent on accurate and comparable European cancer data available for derivation of incidence, prevalence, survival and mortality statistics. For this purpose, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), in its role as a scientific service to the European Commission, and in close collaboration with the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), is supporting the creation of a cancer-information system for Europe to be built upon existing experience, competence and cooperation of national and regional cancer registries.