This ECO network is focused on a person's well-being after a cancer diagnosis. The network works closely with the Inequalities Network to ensure its initiatives are inclusive across Europe.

Recent efforts include:

The European Cancer Summit Session: Cancer Survivors Matter - Championing the European Cancer Survivorship Day and Advancing the Right to Be Forgotten

Watch the session recording here and read the full European Cancer Summit 2023 Report to discover the rich and diverse discussions of this session.

smartCARE: Improving Cancer Survivors’ Quality of Life

The Survivorship and Quality of Life Network guides several of ECO’s EU-funded projects to ensure they address actual needs of both cancer patients and survivors.

An important such project, smartCARE, is developing the ‘Cancer Survivor Smart Card’. This digital tool is designed to reduce the communication gap that often exists between survivors and providers of health and social care, thereby empowering cancer survivors and enhancing their quality of life.

ECO coordinates this EU Project under the EU4Health Programme 2021-2027, focused on sustainability and user needs.

Read more here.

You can also find information on ECO’s Survivorship and Quality of Life EU projects here.

The Right to Be Forgotten

To ensure that cancer survivors do not face financial discrimination as they move on with their lives, we are working to ensure the European Union and Member States fully implement the 'right to be forgotten' laws across the EU.

Read more about this important issue in our position paper, ‘Time to Accelerate: The Right to be Forgotten’.  

Françoise Meunier, founder of Ending Discrimination against Cancer Survivors, speaking in 2023.

Time to Accelerate: Together Against Cancer

Survivorship and quality of life are integral to the European Cancer Roadmap for 2030, entitled ‘Time to Accelerate’. The roadmap includes recommendations for future of EU cancer policy under the next European Commission 2024-2029, with an emphasis on refreshing, expanding, and completing Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, Initiatives include:

• a legal right to be forgotten for European cancer survivors;
• a European Cancer Survivorship Day;
• better collection, analysis, and response to survivorship data;
• promoting EU flagship projects to support cancer survivors;
• new European standards and guidelines for planning survivorship care;
• ensuring new EU pharmaceutical legislation responds to the needs of Europe’s 20 million cancer survivors;
• rehabilitation of cancer survivors, including reintegration into the workplace
• fertility preservation;and
• improving the policy responses to patient co-morbidities and complications.

Read more about the campaign here.

Addressing All the Needs of Cancer Patients and Survivors

In June 2024, our co-chairs Luzia Travado and Andrew Davies convened a meeting of participating Member Societies, patient groups, Community 365 and other stakeholders, to set the agenda for the coming years. Both physical and psycho-social needs have been identified as workstreams to support both cancer patients and survivors

Additional Activities

Some the many reports and responses from this network include:

• Free from Cancer: Achieving Quality of Life for All Cancer Patients and Survivors
• Making Hope Reality: Action on Treatment and Care for Metastatic Cancer Patients
• The Use of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in European Oncology
• European Parliament's Report on Mental Health
• ECO Responds to European Commission Consultation on Disability and Parking Cards

Promoting Key Rights of Cancer Patients and Survivors 

The Network is aligned with the European Code of Cancer Practice, produced by a team of cancer patients, patient advocates and cancer professionals, and launched in October 2020. It sets out a series of 10 key overarching rights, and in particular signposts what patients should expect from their health system to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Background

The battle against cancer is wide ranging and must include:

• a strong fight against the discrimination that too many cancer patients and survivors encounter; and
• a relentless focus on addressing the many quality-of-life issues after a cancer diagnosis, such as supportive and palliative care (psycho-social and drug-related) as well as the lingering stigma and fear surrounding cancer.

Our Network on Survivorship and Quality of Life, along with its co-chairs Luzia Travado and Andrew Davies convene, collaborate and coordinate on these topics and more.

Survivorship and Quality of Life represent a dedicated pillar of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. It brings together a wide range of experts and stakeholders from our Member Societies, Patient Advisory Committee, Community 365, and external organisations. It promotes opportunities for improving health systems and addressing survivorship and quality-of-life challenges faced by cancer patients, their carers, partners and families.

To learn more or to support our work, please contact us This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..