At the ECCO 2019 European Cancer Summit in Brussels, it was a privilege to speak to Ruth Ladenstein, Project Coordinator, European Reference Network (ERN) for paediatric cancer (ERN PaedCan), to discuss the EU Cancer Mission and enabling cancer treatment across borders.
Questions
1. The European Commission has outlined a mission-oriented approach for the next Framework Programme for Research which will involve cancer as a topic. What is the purpose and scope of this mission? (0:10)
2. Is cancer care access and quality similar and continuous across European countries or is it variable with differing provision and standards depending on location? What are the causes of the differences? (1:43)
3. Is there a need to establish a quality standard of cancer care across European borders and is this becoming a reality? (3:20)
4. To what extent can healthcare professionals in different European states learn from practices elsewhere and adopt them for their own patients? (3:58)
5. In the future, is best practice in cancer likely to be increasingly uniform across Europe or is it likely to be unequal and dependent on healthcare funding or the patient’s ability to pay? (4:56)
Ruth Ladenstein has no conflicts of interest to declare in relation to this video.
Filmed in partnership with the European CanCer Organisation at the ECCO 2019 European Cancer Summit in Brussels, Belgium.