European Joint Action on Cancer Screening (EUCanScreen)

Status
Ongoing

Within this European Joint Action, a large consortium (about 100 partners from 29 countries) collaborates to assure sustainable implementation of high-quality organized breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening, and to work towards implementation of the recently (2022) recommended screening programs.
 

Belgian partners involved in the EUCanScreen consortium are Sciensano, BCR, the 3 regional screening organisations (BruPrev, CCRef and CvKO) and UAntwerpen/UZA.
 

In line with the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the 2022 EU Recommendations for Cancer Screening, seven specific objectives have been set for EUCanScreen: 

  • ensuring full implementation of evidence-based, cost-effective and quality-assured screening programmes for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers;
  • preparing for implementation of evidence-based, cost-effective and quality-assured screening programmes for lung, prostate and gastric cancers;
  • ensuring proper programme governance and sustainability;
  • ensuring better-quality, timelier and comparable data collection and monitoring of screening programmes;
  • ensuring equal access of eligible EU citizens to screening programmes and reducing cancer inequalities;
  • ensuring capacity building in cancer screening, and
  • ensuring collaboration and coherence with related projects funded under EU Programmes.
     

The work-plan of EUCanScreen has been built on the results of previous and ongoing major EU screening activities and is composed of eleven interlinked work packages. The Joint Action EUCanScreen started June 2024 and will run through May 2028.

 

BCR will take an active role in the following work packages and tasks:

  • Task 5.3:  building on the results of the previous CanScreen-ECIS project and on a survey planned in task 5.2 of this joint action, the European Cancer Information System (ECIS) platform will be complemented with aggregated data on (organized) screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer. For this purpose, a core set of indicators and a standard methodology were developed.
    BCR will coordinate the delivery of data for all organized screening programmes in Belgium, in close collaboration with the 3 regional screening organisations and in concertation with the regional authorities. We aim to maximally comply to the requested stratification.
    Within the international consortium, we actively contribute to the successful implementation of this data collection, validation, analysis, visualisation and publication.
  • Tasks 5.4 and 5.5:  These related tasks aim to develop a common data model and a methodology to calculate these indicators based on locally available individual-level data, through a federated approach. In collaboration with the Belgian partners, BCR will closely follow and contribute to this development, and to participate in the pilot data collection that is planned in the final phase of this joint action.
  • Task 7.1:  Implementation of quality assurance (QA) schemes. 
    BCR actively contributes to (1) an analysis of the current situation regarding the implementation in organized screening in the EU (stakeholder survey); (2) the identification of the requirements to achieve that implementation; (3) a roadmap to integrate the patients’ perspective (PROMs) in the quality assurance initiatives in organized screening.
  • Task 7.2:  Classification and reporting of interval cancers.
    Starting from a summary of the existing variability, this task will harmonise definitions and methodology of calculation. This will lead to data collection and analysis, contributing to international benchmarking of organized screening.

 

Apart form this task-specific involvement, participation in the various activities of this consortium will bring important knowledge (e.g. on the use of AI, the evolution towards risk-based screening) and networking opportunities that will allow BCR to continue its support to organized cancer screening in Belgium.
 

This large-scale project will generate a wealth of (research)reports and publications. The results will be reported to the European Commission, and will be used to further build, facilitate and strengthen high-quality organized cancer screening.

 

 

This project has received funding from the European Union's EU4HEALTH Programme under the Grant Agreement no 101162959.

EUCanScreen - European Commission

 

 

Contact information:

 

List of Participants:

Competent Authorities:

  1. UNIVERSITY OF LATVIA (LU)
  2. GESUNDHEIT OSTERREICH GMBH (AT)
  3. SCIENSANO (BE)
  4. HRVATSKI ZAVOD ZA JAVNO ZDRAVSTVO (HR)
  5. Ministry of Health of the Republic of Cyprus (CY)
  6. USTAV ZDRAVOTNICKYCH INFORMACI A STATISTIKY CESKE REPUBLIKY (CZ)
  7. REGION SYDDANMARK (DK)
  8. TERVISE ARENGU INSTITUUT (EE)
  9. TERVEYDEN JA HYVINVOINNIN LAITOS (FI)
  10. INSTITUT NATIONAL DU CANCER GIP (FR)
  11. ROBERT KOCH-INSTITUT (DE)
  12. MINISTRY OF HEALTH (EL)
  13. ORSZAGOS KORANYI PULMONOLOGIAI INTEZET (HU)
  14. HEILSUGAESLA HOFUDBORGARSVAEDISINS (IS)
  15. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH (IE)
  16. ISTITUTO PER LO STUDIO E LA PREVENZIONE E LA RETE ONCOLOGICA (IT)
  17. LIETUVOS RESPUBLIKOS SVEIKATOS APSAUGOS MINISTERIJA (LT)
  18. Ministry for Health and Active Ageing - Government of Malta (MT)
  19. INSTITUTIA MEDICO-SANITARA PUBLICA INSTITUTUL ONCOLOGIC (MD)
  20. RIJKSINSTITUUT VOOR VOLKSGEZONDHEID EN MILIEU (NL)
  21. HELSEDIREKTORATET (NO)
  22. NARODOWY INSTYTUT ONKOLOGII IM. MARII SKLODOWSKIEJ-CURIE - PANSTWOWY INSTYTUT BADAWCZY (PL)
  23. MINISTERIO DA SAUDE - REPUBLICA PORTUGUESA (PT)
  24. INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE SANATATE PUBLICA (RO)
  25. MINISTERSTVO ZDRAVOTNICTVA SLOVENSKEJ REPUBLIKY (SK)
  26. ONKOLOSKI INSTITUT LJUBLJANA (SI)
  27. INSTITUT CATALA D'ONCOLOGIA (ES)
  28. SOCIALSTYRELSEN (SE)
  29. STATE INSTITUTION PUBLIC HEALTH CENTER OF THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF UKRAINE (UA)

 

Affiliated Entities:

  1. SLIMĪBU PROFILAKSES UN KONTROLES CENTRS (LV)
  2. RĪGAS STRADIŅA UNIVERSITĀTE (LV)
  3. PAULA STRADIŅA KLĪNISKĀ UNIVERSITĀTES SLIMNĪCA (LV)
  4. UNIVERSITAT FUR WEITERBILDUNG KREMS (AT)
  5. UMIT TIROL - PRIVATE UNIVERSITAT FUR GESUNDHEITSWISSENSCHAFTEN UND TECHNOLOGIE GMBH (AT)
  6. CENTRUM VOOR KANKEROPSPORING (BE)
  7. STICHTING KANKERREGISTER - FONDATION REGISTRE DU CANCER (BE)
  8. CENTRE COMMUNAUTAIRE DE REFERENCE POUR LE DEPISTAGE DES CANCERS (BE)
  9. UNIVERSITAIR ZIEKENHUIS ANTWERPEN (BE)
  10. CENTRE BRUXELLOIS DE COORDINATION POUR LE DEPISTAGE ET LA PREVENTION DES CANCERS (BE)
  11. KLINICKI BOLNICKI CENTAR ZAGREB (HR)
  12. UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS (CY)
  13. TARTU ULIKOOL (EE)
  14. SUOMEN SYOPAYHDISTYS - CANCERFORENINGEN I FINLAND RY - CANCER SOCIETY OF FINLAND CSF (FI)
  15. FEDERATION HOSPITALIERE DE FRANCE (FR)
  16. HOSPICES CIVILS DE LYON (FR)
  17. UNICANCER (FR)
  18. ASSISTANCE PUBLIQUE HOPITAUX DE PARIS (FR)
  19. PLATEFORME DES DONNEES DE SANTE (FR)
  20. DEUTSCHES KREBSFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM HEIDELBERG (DE)
  21. LEIBNIZ-INSTITUT FUR PRAVENTIONSFORSCHUNG UND EPIDEMIOLOGIE - BIPS GMBH (DE)
  22. DEUTSCHE KREBSGESELLSCHAFT EV (DE)
  23. DIOIKISI 6IS YGEIONOMIKIS PERIFEREIAS PELOPONNISOU IONION NYSON IPEIROU KAI DYTIKIS ELLADAS (EL)
  24. NEMZETI NEPEGESZSEGUGYI ES GYOGYSZERESZETI KOZPONT (HU)
  25. LANDLAEKNIS EMBAETTID (IS)
  26. HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE (IE)
  27. ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN IRELAND (IE)
  28. ISTITUTO SUPERIORE DI SANITA (IT)
  29. MINISTERO DELLA SALUTE (IT)
  30. AZIENDA UNITA SANITARIA LOCALE DI REGGIO EMILIA (IT)
  31. REGIONE MARCHE (IT)
  32. AZIENDA OSPEDALIERA CITTA DELLA SALUTE E DELLA SCIENZA DI TORINO (IT)
  33. AZIENDA ULSS 4 VENETO ORIENTALE (IT)
  34. ISTITUTO DI RICERCHE FARMACOLOGICHE MARIO NEGRI (IT)
  35. UNIVERSITA CATTOLICA DEL SACRO CUORE (IT)
  36. PROVINCIA AUTONOMA DI TRENTO (IT)
  37. FONDAZIONE IRCCS ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DEI TUMORI (IT)
  38. REGIONE LOMBARDIA (IT)
  39. ATS PAVIA (IT)
  40. VIESOJI ISTAIGA VILNIAUS UNIVERSITETO LIGONINE SANTAROS KLINIKOS (LT)
  41. LIETUVOS SVEITAKOS MOKSLU UNIVERSITETO LIGONINE KAUNO KLINIKOS (LT)
  42. ERASMUS UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM ROTTERDAM (NL)
  43. STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM (NL)
  44. STICHTING BEVOLKINGSONDERZOEK NEDERLAND (NL)
  45. FOLKEHELSEINSTITUTTET (NO)
  46. INSTYTUT GRUZLICY I CHOROB PLUC (PL)
  47. INSTITUTO PORTUGUES DE ONCOLOGIA DO PORTO FRANCISCO GENTIL, EPE (PT)
  48. UNIDADE LOCAL DE SAUDE DE SAO JOAO, E.P.E. (PT)
  49. UNIDADE LOCAL DE SAÚDE SANTA MARIA (PT)
  50. INSTITUTUL CLINIC FUNDENI (RO)
  51. INSTITUTUL ONCOLOGIC PROF DR ION CHIRICUTA CLUJ-NAPOCA (RO)
  52. NARODNY ONKOLOGICKY USTAV (SK)
  53. NACIONALNI INSTITUT ZA JAVNO ZDRAVJE (SI)
  54. ASOCIACIÓN INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIÓN EN SISTEMAS DE SALUD-BIOSISTEMAK (ES)
  55. FUNDACION PARA EL FOMENTO DE LA INVESTIGACION SANITARIA Y BIOMEDICA DE LA COMUNITAT VALENCIANA (ES)
  56. INSTITUTO ARAGONES DE CIENCIAS DE LA SALUD (ES)
  57. FUNDACION INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACION MARQUES DE VALDECILLA (ES)
  58. FUNDACIO INSTITUT HOSPITAL DEL MAR D INVESTIGACIONS MEDIQUES (ES)
  59. SVERIGES KOMMUNER OCH REGIONER (SE)
  60. STATE INSTITUTION VOZIANOV INSTITUTE OF UROLOGY OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES OF UKRAINE (UA)
  61. NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE (UA)

 

Associated Partners:

  1. INSTITUT JULES BORDET ASBL (BE)
  2. MINISTERIE VAN VOLKSGEZONDHEID, WELZIJN EN SPORT (NL)
  3. INSTITUTO TUMORI "GIOVANNI PAOLO II" IRCCS (IT)
  4. AZIENDA SANITARIA LOCALE TARANTO (IT)
  5. MSB MEDICAL SCHOOL BERLIN GMBH (DE)
  6. CENTRUL NATIONAL DE SANATATE MINTALA SI LUPTA ANTODROG (RO)
  7. INSTITUTUL REGIONAL DE ONCOLOGIE IASI (RO)
Cancer screening
Website EUCanScreen