Europe has set itself an ambitious goal: to reduce the cancer burden for patients, families, and health systems across the EU. Through Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, billions of euros are being invested in prevention, early detection, treatment, and survivorship.
Yet achieving these ambitions depends on something far less visible: reliable data on cancer and the systems that produce them.
Every minute in Europe, five people are diagnosed with cancer, and more than two die from the disease. But if Europe wants to beat cancer, it must answer a basic question: do we know where progress is being made — and where it is not?
A recent report from the European Court of Auditors (ECA) suggests the answer is: not sufficiently. While recognising the ambition of the Cancer Plan, the auditors warn that its effectiveness is at risk due to the lack of a comprehensive monitoring framework and uncertainty about funding beyond 2027. The European Commission has acknowledged this gap.
In other words, Europe is investing heavily in cancer control but still struggles to measure whether those investments deliver results.
Running cancer policy without reliable data is like flying an aircraft in poor visibility with faulty instruments. Without accurate readings, it is impossible to know whether you are on course.
As Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke has put it:
“If we want better cancer policy, we need better cancer data. Population-based cancer registries provide the evidence that allows policymakers to act.”
At the heart of this challenge are population-based cancer registries (PBCRs), the systems that measure cancer at the population level.
Across Europe, more than 200 registries collect data on cancer diagnoses. The European Cancer Information System (#ECIS) brings these data together, allowing policymakers to track incidence and survival, compare outcomes, and identify inequalities between countries and social groups.
Without these registries, Europe would not know whether prevention policies work, whether screening improves early detection, or whether survival is improving — and for whom.
PBCRs are therefore not simply research tools. They are essential public health infrastructure, underpinning national cancer plans and European initiatives such as the European Cancer Inequalities Registry, #ECIR.
Yet their importance remains largely under-recognised. Freddie Bray, head of Cancer Surveillance at the IARC – International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization, says:
“The value of population-based cancer registries is often invisible until it is lost. These systems provide the only unbiased evidence on how cancer affects entire populations, and they are fundamental to evaluating prevention, screening and treatment. Europe’s progress in reducing inequalities and improving outcomes depends on the stability and long-term support of these registries. When PBCRs falter, our ability to understand—and ultimately control—the cancer burden falters with them.”
Europe has built robust statistical systems in many policy areas. Demographic data are collected under clear legal frameworks through Eurostat, ensuring comparability across Member States.
Cancer – Europe’s second leading cause of death – lacks such a structural system.
Although more than 200 registries exist, only 26% of the European population (40% in the EU) is currently covered by recent [GG1] data reported in ECIS[1]. Many registries operate with limited staff and depend on short-term funding.
At the same time, expectations are rising. Registries are asked to deliver faster reporting, more detailed inequality analyses, integration with clinical and genomic data, and greater comparability across countries.
Producing high-quality cancer data is complex. It requires collecting and validating clinical information, linking datasets and ensuring harmonisation across systems. This work depends on specialised expertise — yet is often under-resourced.
The ECA report also highlights persistent inequalities in cancer outcomes across Europe – in prevention, screening, and survival.
But inequalities can only be addressed if they are properly measured.
Where registries lack capacity, data gaps emerge – creating blind spots in Europe’s understanding of cancer.
As MEP Romana Jerković has noted:
“Europe cannot manage what it does not measure. Without robust data systems to track progress and expose inequalities, the Cancer Plan will not deliver the results Europe needs.”
Europe is already moving in the right direction. Initiatives such as ECIS and the European Cancer Inequalities Registry are strengthening cancer monitoring.
The CancerWatch JA is improving the quality, comparability, and timeliness of cancer data across Europe.
At the same time, the ECHoS | Establishing of Cancer Mission Hubs: Networks and Synergies project is establishing national cancer mission hubs to support implementation of the EU Mission on Cancer and improve coordination between policymakers, citizens and patients, industry, researchers and clinicians. But coordination alone is not enough.
As Anabela Isidro and Hugo R. Soares, coordinators of ECHoS, put it:
“For European cancer policy to deliver results, countries need access to robust and comparable data. Population-based cancer registries provide that foundation.”
Without strong registries, even the most advanced European platforms will fall short.
Europe has placed cancer high on the political agenda — with the ambition to improve the lives of millions of patients and their families.
Yet ambition must be matched by data capacity.
If Europe wants to evaluate its policies, reduce inequalities, and improve outcomes, actions are needed – and they must be taken together.
Member States should:
The EU should:
These actions are interdependent: national registries generate the data, while European coordination ensures they are comparable and usable. Population-based cancer registries must therefore become a mandatory and sustainably funded pillar of Europe’s cancer strategy.
Ultimately, this is about more than data. It is about ensuring that every patient benefits from policies grounded in evidence. And that progress in Europe’s fight against cancer is real and measurable.
Because before Europe can beat cancer, it must be able to measure it properly.
Vlad Voiculescu ENCR European Network of Cancer Registries European Cancer Organisation #EUCancerPlan #PublicHealth #CancerRegistries #DataForLife #EU-HaDEA #EU4Health #CancerData #HealthEurope #CancerControl #EUBeatingCancer #TacklingInequalities #HealthUnion
[1] Incidence by registry, All cancer entities excluding keratinocytic skin cancers, Both sexes, 0 to 85+ years, 2010 to 2019. For 2023, currently only data from Sweden, Lower Saxony, Finland and Hamburg is reported.
