War on Cancer
Message to governments: Prevention is better than cure
Alojz Peterle - Member of the European Parliament; MEPs Against Cancer Group
My first point is that cancer is faster than the response; cancer is still epidemically growing, despite all our efforts and progress of medicine and new drugs. In order to be more successful we need to deal not only with cancer itself but with its context, with the roots of it. We were not enough attentive to the different determinants of cancer and I would measure success in our fight against cancer by lower incidence or by diminishing in-flow of new cancer patients. I would measure it by the prolonged life of those who were diagnosed with cancer but also by the attention to the survivors.
How can we do this?
Once we will have less cancer patients we will definitely… I would say statistical offices will register that, then we can measure the years after the diagnosis, this we can do. It’s not that easy to deal with survivors because in many countries, or I would say generally, we can say the survivors are facing problems with reintegration into society. They are facing different problems, also financial problems because there is less confidence in them and we have to be much more attentive to their problems as was the fact in the past.
What is the main point from your discussion?
I’m interested in what medical doctors will say; I’m not a medical doctor, I’m a politician and I would be pleased by announcements of new approaches. I’m interested in the progress of the so-called personalised medicine. I’m pleased by the development of integrative medicine and so on, so whatever could help is welcome. But, as I said, despite the progress we are still facing increasing numbers of cancer patients.
In practical terms, how can we address survivors?
In the past, maybe in several countries in the European Union, those who are diagnosed with cancer and in case they survive they are not considered any more as fully integrated people, they are still considered as sick people or people with some problems. Very few go back to work, which means a very important aspect of whole reintegration. They are considered as different people, we don’t count on them in full terms. So they are considered as those who maybe will not be able to pay loans or to do that and that. So another attention is needed to those people and we are facing more and more survivors. Of course we are pleased by that but a few years ago the palliative care was much more emphasised. So now we are asking for more attention to the survivors.
How can the EU deal with the financial burden of increased survivorship?
Of course, it doesn’t help competence, it is not able to legislate in that regard but we can share good practices, we can prepare recommendations, we can do research, we must be attentive to the inequalities we see within Europe and also within the member states. So there are many so-called supportive measures which can be undertaken by the European authorities.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
One of my main points is, for me, the fact that only 3% on average, 3% of the national health budgets are used for prevention. For me this is a statistical mistake, it’s not the expression of a policy. We know that investment into prevention is the best one; we get a lot of benefits from it but the member states invest more or less all the money into health systems, into hospitals and so on. But we need to invest into prevention, only by that we can diminish the in-flow of new patients. This means more education; this means different agriculture; this means investment into the environment and so on. So I like to say we need a paradigmatic change in our mind.
Would you say there has been a political shift in terms of increased government awareness and taxation?
Yes, of course the health systems in the European Union in all member states are facing problems. There is the European Union’s principle of health for all and health in all policies but the drugs are more and more expensive, new therapies are expensive. We fear that we will not be able to provide health for all in these terms so we have to develop knowledge and to combine old and new knowledge in order to really put patients at the centre. The governments, as whole, entire governments, have to take care on that. If health is just an issue of medical doctors, the Minister of Health, then we are lost. So at this front against cancer we need many stakeholders, very well co-ordinated actions and we see big differences between member states and even all member states don’t have national cancer registers, all of them don’t have yet national cancer plans, cancer control plans. So we are really dealing with, as we say, an iron curtain within the European Union. So we have to invest there and none of our member states can deal with inequalities within the European Union, only the European Union can undertake something.
