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Background
High-quality smart screening with precision diagnostic equipment for early cancer detection is essential in reducing cancer mortality in Europe. Early cancer detection and diagnosis are linked with curable stages of cancer, less invasive treatment options and better rehabilitation.
To date, significant disparities are observed across the EU Member States in both the adoption of and access to cancer screening programmes. This phenomenon has curtailed the widespread uptake - and subsequent health benefits - of the Council Recommendation and the European Guidelines for breast, collorectal and cervical cancer.
Against this backdrop, COCIR welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to propose a roadmap for the update of the 2003 Council Recommendation on the screening of breast, cervical and colorectal cancers based on the latest scientific evidence and methodologies. We believe that the Council guidance can - and should - set minimum standards and promote harmonised screening programmes across the EU Member States. It should also accentuate the significance of the interoperable high-quality imaging databases and health data registries in cancer prognosis, diagnosis, treatment, and after-care.
We would particularly support a Commission proposal on the extension of the Council Recommendation on cancer screening to lung and prostate cancers, based on the emerging scientific evidence provided by international and EU-based clinical trials, on new screening tests and recent data about the optimal screening protocols, such as the magnetic resonance imaging and HPV testing.
In the same vein, we would also encourage the Council to mandate the European Commission to develop European guidelines and methodologies, in the form of European quality assurance schemes, for all the types of cancer addressed by the Council Recommendation.

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