One million cancers missed across Europe during pandemic - report

An estimated one million cancer diagnoses were missed across Europe during the Covid-19 pandemic, threatening to set back outcomes from the disease by almost a decade, according to a new report.

It warns of a European cancer epidemic if weaknesses in cancer health systems and research are not urgently addressed.

The report has been compiled by a wide range of experts involved in cancer research, brought together into a commission by the Lancet Oncology journal.

The resulting “European Groundshot” initiative echoes the Moonshot plan in the US to eliminate cancer. Earlier this year, president Joe Biden set new goals for the Cancer Moonshot, including a halving of the death rate within 25 years. The commission argues that European cancer research should have a more grounded, patient-focus approach compared with the technological focus of the US initiative.

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“With the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is more important than ever that Europe develops a resilient cancer research landscape to play a transformative role in improving prevention, diagnosis, treatment and quality-of-life for current and future patients and those living beyond cancer,” according to Prof Mark Lawler of Queen’s University Belfast, lead author of the commission.

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“We estimate that approximately one million cancer diagnoses were missed across Europe during the pandemic. We are in a race against time to find those missing cancers.

“Additionally, we saw a chilling effect on cancer research with laboratories shut down and clinical trials delayed or cancelled in the first pandemic wave.”

According to the report, Ireland had the lowest amount of cancer research of any of the original European Union states, though cross-Border co-operation between the Republic and Northern Ireland is cited as an exemplar for other countries.

“It is critical that Ireland takes a more strategic approach to cancer research and focuses on the cancers that cause the greatest burden in this country,” Prof Lawler said. “Closer collaboration between the National Cancer Control Programme and initiatives such as the All-Island Cancer Research Institute would allow a more data-driven research-informed approach that would benefit cancer patients on the island.”

Europe is heading towards a cancer epidemic in the next decade if cancer health systems and cancer research are not urgently prioritised, he said.

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The commission analysed data on the impact of the pandemic across Europe and found clinicians saw 1.5 million fewer patients with cancer in the first year of the pandemic, with one in two patients with cancer not receiving surgery or chemotherapy in a timely manner. In addition, 100 million cancer screening tests were missed.

It recommends the European cancer research community should accelerate the research response to the indirect impacts of the pandemic on cancer.

In Europe, total public sector investment in cancer research over the past decade was calculated at about €20 billion-€22 billion, or about €26 per head. This compared with €76 billion in the US, or €234 per head. The commission calls for a doubling of the European cancer research budget to €50 per capita by 2030.