Towards an EU legislation on the right to be forgotten to access to financial services for cancer survivors.

INTRODUCTION: Financial discrimination may affect an increasing number of cancer survivors in Europe as a consequence of the improvement of cancer management. According to the latest projections, Europe counts around 20 million cancer survivors. In the few years, the issue raised the attention of the European policymakers. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study is to promote political and legal solutions taking into consideration the need to stop discrimination against cancer survivors. The article also aims to implement legal principles on patients' rights and social values at the national and European levels, emphasising EU competence on the matter. METHODS: The article reviews the current legal aspects concerning the right to be forgotten (RTBF) for cancer survivors in Europe, and it analyses the EU competency for its implementation. RESULTS: The legislative initiatives in force in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Portugal provide concrete examples of an effective solution for former patients that should be extended throughout the EU. Under these circumstances, the European Legislator could lead on multiple initiatives to implement at the European level the RTBF, as our research has demonstrated the EU competency for these matters. CONCLUSION: A Pan-European solution based on the implementation of the RTBF is feasible within current treaties and seems the best approach to tackle the issue. The EU Action would provide a common and harmonised regulatory framework among the Member States to avoid discrimination and ensure equality among EU citizens being cured of cancer.

The Porto European Cancer Research Summit 2021.

Key stakeholders from the cancer research continuum met in May 2021 at the European Cancer Research Summit in Porto to discuss priorities and specific action points required for the successful implementation of the European Cancer Mission and Europe's Beating Cancer Plan (EBCP). Speakers presented a unified view about the need to establish high-quality, networked infrastructures to decrease cancer incidence, increase the cure rate, improve patient's survival and quality of life, and deal with research and care inequalities across the European Union (EU). These infrastructures, featuring Comprehensive Cancer Centres (CCCs) as key components, will integrate care, prevention and research across the entire cancer continuum to support the development of personalized/precision cancer medicine in Europe. The three pillars of the recommended European infrastructures - namely translational research, clinical/prevention trials and outcomes research - were pondered at length. Speakers addressing the future needs of translational research focused on the prospects of multiomics assisted preclinical research, progress in Molecular and Digital Pathology, immunotherapy, liquid biopsy and science data. The clinical/prevention trial session presented the requirements for next-generation, multicentric trials entailing unified strategies for patient stratification, imaging, and biospecimen acquisition and storage. The third session highlighted the need for establishing outcomes research infrastructures to cover primary prevention, early detection, clinical effectiveness of innovations, health-related quality-of-life assessment, survivorship research and health economics. An important outcome of the Summit was the presentation of the Porto Declaration, which called for a collective and committed action throughout Europe to develop the cancer research infrastructures indispensable for fostering innovation and decreasing inequalities within and between member states. Moreover, the Summit guidelines will assist decision making in the context of a unique EU-wide cancer initiative that, if expertly implemented, will decrease the cancer death toll and improve the quality of life of those confronted with cancer, and this is carried out at an affordable cost.

Challenges and solutions to embed cancer survivorship research and innovation within the EU Cancer Mission.

We have reached a watershed moment in Europe in our efforts to ensure increased survival and better outcomes for cancer patients. The EU Cancer Mission and the European Beating Cancer Plan together provide an unrivalled opportunity to make significant inroads into a disease that kills over 1.7 million European citizens annually. Harnessing these twin pillars of cancer research and cancer control can be transformative for the European cancer community and in particular for the European cancer patient. However, from a research perspective, in order to fully realise these benefits, we need to ensure that all aspects of the cancer continuum are addressed. Previous research efforts have focussed more on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, whereas cancer survivorship, to date, has been overlooked. Here, we aim to redress this balance, by identifying the key challenges in cancer survivorship research that need to be addressed and proposing a series of recommended solutions, which, if acted upon, would deliver significant benefits for the nearly 20 million cancer survivors in Europe. To achieve this, we propose the development of a clearly articulated and sustainably funded European Cancer Survivorship Research and Innovation Plan. Embedding this plan within the framework of the EU Cancer Mission would be transformative for cancer survivors and society.