By Elisabeth Morin-Chartier - 6th February 2012
Many families have lost a loved one because of this disease
Elisabeth Morin-Chartier
Europe must mobilise itself to improve national coordination in the fight against cancer, argues Elisabeth Morin-Chartier.
While public health policies remain the responsibility of member states, can Europe stand aloof from the general mobilisation in the fight against cancer? No, we need a European battle plan.
For many years, the European parliament, and particularly the MEPs at the heart of the members against cancer (MAC) group, have maintained that prevention offers the most effective long-term solution, in terms of containing the disease. We have stressed the need for publicity campaigns on cancer detection, the promotion of healthy lifestyles, the promotion of research and innovation as well as access to drugs, which we have supplemented by recommendations in a resolution adopted by the parliament.
The fight against geographic inequalities with regard to the disease should become a priority for Europe. I consider it indispensable that patients should be able to have preventative measures and access to treatment throughout the member states. We must pay particular attention to the development of palliative care to ensure that patients and their families are given better support during the course of the disease. We need long-term, better coordinated collective action on the part of Europe as a whole. Many families have lost a loved one because of this disease. The citizens of Europe have everything to gain from better coordination of national policies at European level.
Such coordination should take place at four levels. First, in terms of research, laboratories and research institutions should specialise, with ever greater coordination of their work teams, to streamline the efficacy of all research work. Second, the European cancer typology register, third, treatment protocols and finally, systematic detection.
For example in terms of breast cancer detection; while a French woman benefits from the national detection policy between the ages of 50 and 70 thanks to a mammogram every two years, a Swedish woman benefits from an annual check-up from the age of 40, and a Bulgarian woman never has any systematic check-ups. But we all know how early detection can affect vital diagnosis.
Furthermore, the parliament is currently reviewing the health of workers subjected to electromagnetic fields directive. Indeed, this directive was so restrictive that, de facto, it prevented the continued use of MRI scanning. It was initially necessary, therefore, to defer its enforcement pending a fresh directive, which would strike a balance between the protection of workers’ health and the use of MRI scanners which are particularly indispensable in the fight against cancer. As the rapporteur for this new directive, I wish to argue the case in favour of the use of MRI scanners being especially exempted for the purposes of diagnosis, monitoring and cancer staging assessments, as well as, naturally, their use in monitoring neurological patients.
Europe should mobilise itself to improve coordination in the fight against cancer. This is the idea behind the MAC association which has brought together the MEPs mobilised against cancer at European level.
