Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan
Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan (EBCP[EP1] ) is the EU’s flagship strategy to reduce the cancer burden across Europe through coordinated, evidence-based action. It addresses the entire disease pathway; from prevention and early detection to treatment and survivorship, whilst also tackling inequalities in access and outcomes.
[EP1]Include link to official webpage: https://health.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2022-02/eu_cancer-plan_en_0.pdf
EBCP is structured around four pillars:
- Prevention
- Early detection
- Diagnosis and treatment
- Quality of life for patients and survivors.
It includes 10 flagship initiatives and over 30 supporting actions, backed by €4 billion in funding. [EM1]
For urologists, EBCP supports improved screening for prostate cancer and advances personalised medicine through EU-wide networks[EM2] . It also fosters innovation via initiatives such as the European Cancer Imaging Initiative and the Cancer Diagnostic and Treatment for All programme.
A key goal is to ensure 90% of eligible citizens have access to screening for major cancers by 2025. EBCP encourages collaboration between Member States and stakeholders, including healthcare professionals. [EM3] [EM4] It integrates research, digital tools, and training to strengthen Europe’s cancer workforce, and ultimately aims to build a resilient European Health Union where every patient receives high-quality care.
Our key partner for multi-disciplanary approaches to cancer prevention, diagnosis and care is the European Cancer Organisation. Home - European Cancer Organisation
The EAU Policy Office is closely monitoring the new Own-initiative procedure (INI) from the European Parliament on Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. This INI will look at the implementation stage of EBCP and work on suggestions. Procedure File: 2025/2139(INI) | Legislative Observatory | European Parliament
[EM1]Maybe do bullet points to break it up?
[EM2]Collaboration?
[EM3]And encourages XXX including healthcare professionals to do this.
?
[EM4]In general, do we want to link it back to the EAU’s work? E.g. it encourages collaboration, which is what we do
Topics
These sections below will open and have more content inside
Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer diagnosis among men in Europe, with around 450,000 new cases annually. It is the second or third most common cancer-related cause of death in men in many European countries. Despite this, systematic screening programmes have not been implemented across the EU. At the same time, opportunistic/ non organised individual PSA testing is highly prevalent, although known to be inefficient and contributing overdiagnosis. During the development of EBCP, EAU conducted targetted advocacy to highlight these gaps, and to present a potential way foward for a risk adapted screening algorithm. In December 2022, the EU undated the Council Screening Recommendations to include Prostate Cancer. Currently, PRAISE-U (Prostate cancer Awareness and Initiative for Screening in the EU) is a three year project co-funded by the European Commission designed to meet these challenges by piloting Prostate Cancer screening programmes across the EU, and by strengthening the knowledge base and monitoring and evaluation capabilities. PRAISE U also leads the work on Prostate Cancer screening under the EU funded Joint Action, EUCanScreen.
Topic leads: Hein Van Poppel, Peter Albers and Roderick van den Berg
Praise-U
Work with EuropaUomo
EPAD
Other collab
Bladder cancer poses a significant public health challenge in Europe, ranking as the 5th most prevalent cancer and the 4th most common in men in Europe. Each year, over 224,000 new cases are diagnosed in Europe with 165,000 people diagnosed in the EU alone, placing a significant impact on healthcare systems and society. It is estimated that over 52,000 lives are lost annually to this disease in the EU, with projections indicating a worrying bladder cancer incidence increase to 219,000 by 2030 (Updated in February 2025).
Topic lead: Thorsten Ecke
(when launched) BCLEAR
Working with the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition: The EAU and the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition (WBCPC) have authored a White Paper on Bladder Cancer, which details our community’s policy recommendations on how the EU can take decisive policy action to decrease the impact of Bladder Cancer throughout Europe.
These recommendations aim to improve patient outcomes, advance public health initiatives and drive innovation for patients with bladder cancer. They also aim to drive stronger collaboration between policymakers, healthcare professionals, researchers and patient advocates to enact lasting positive change for all people affected by bladder cancer. Link to the publication of the editorial in European Urology Why We Need More Attention on Bladder Cancer: Establishing Policy Recommendations for Health Care Professionals and Politicians - ScienceDirect and also the upcoming Nature Reviews Urology paper (not yet published online)
Checklist document
Kidney cancer, in particular Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC), constitutes a health challenge across Europe. While RCC may represent a modest percentage of all cancers, its impact is far from negligible. In 2020, Europe accounted for over 138,000 new cases, a figure that underscores the need for concerted policy action.
The EAU works closely with IKCC, the kidney cancer patient coalition, in its advocacy on kidney cancer.
White paper (under development -July 2025)
Roundtable event
(ECO Men & Cancer Workstream): The EAU and its partners work hard to understand inequities in cancer through a gender-inclusive lens. The EAU works closely with the Global Alliance on Men’s Health to highlight issues related to men and cancer, in line with the The Strategy on the health and well-being of men of the World Health Organisation of the European Region. Recognising that the burden of cancer falls disproportionally on men, ensuring the HPV vaccination is available for boys helps to procect the population in general against the virus, but also protects some boys and men from male cancers, such as penile cancer.
The EAU is closely following the development of the Own-initiative procedure from the FEMM and SANT Committee on Gender inequalities in health, specifically as regards gender-specific conditions (Procedure File: 2025/2074(INI) | Legislative Observatory | European Parliament ).