Summit Preview: Delivering Mission-Orientated Cancer Activity

Professor Mark Lawler of Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and the Lancet Oncology Groundshot Commission Lead describes some of the major themes the Mission session at the ECCO 2019 European Cancer Summit will address.

 It is encouraging that the next European Commission mandate 2019-24 will see the creation of a unifying EU ‘Cancer Mission’.

However, while the details of that mission remain to be seen, it is opportune to gather stakeholders to debate in the open the key issues that surround any major uptake of goal orientated activity in cancer.

• What will success look like?
• What are the pitfalls that we can learn from?
• What are the targets and cohorts that risk being overlooked?
• How do we involve all partners to ensure success?

These, and other questions, will be opened up and debated in the Cancer Mission session at the ECCO 2019 European Cancer Summit. Contributions to the discussion will be made by leading members of the European Cancer Organisation such as the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI), who have recently been convening pan-European multi-stakeholder meetings on this subject. Also joining the session will be the European Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOP Europe), who recently published a manifesto of actions that could be taken towards a potential eventual future of zero deaths and zero late effects in paediatric cancer care.

For myself, I’m looking forward to sharing updates about the Lancet Oncology Groundshot Commission. The Commission aims to identify a wide range of cost-effective and proven measures that lie at our very finger tips, in respect to improving the prevention and treatment of cancer. Hundreds of thousands of lives could be positively impacted on at a rapid rate, by simply implementing what we already know to work well. From this perspective, I’ll be seeking to inject some urgent realism into our discussions at the ECCO 2019 European Cancer Summit, and gain momentum for accelerating ‘grounded’ solutions for cancer care improvement.