Digestive Cancer Europe is the European umbrella organisation of a large group of national Members representing patients with digestive cancer. Its mission is to contribute to early diagnosis and decreased mortality from digestive cancers and to increase overall survival and quality of life.
Among its activities, DiCE is leading the “Designing an Optimal Colorectal Cancer Screening Process in Europe”, a Thematic Network 2020 on Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Screening on the EU Health Policy Platform.
Organised by the EU Commission, the Thematic Network connects representatives from screening agencies, national ministries of health, patient organisations and cancer experts to produce a Joint Statement advocating earlier diagnosis across Europe and best practices to achieve this. Moreover, it wants to collect ideas to overcome national and regional barriers to colorectal cancer screening (ranging from patient psychology to the more operational aspects of running the tests).
The Joint Statement is currently being produced to encourage EU Member states, the EU Institutions and other stakeholders to act and organise on a number of priorities. The Statement concentrates on several recommendations aimed at recognising the effectiveness of screening programmes and the central role that building successful prevention initiatives has on societies. It also encourages Member States to share best practices and to apply them in line with their commitments. The statement, to be shared with national and international organisations working on cancer prevention and care, will gain the support of different actors and be presented at the DiCE CRC Screening Summit on November 30 and to the EU Commission early 2021.
DiCE was established in 2018 by Jolanta Gore-Booth, Stefan Gijssels, and Prof. Dr. Eric Van Cutsem. It grew from EuropaColon that was founded in 2005 by Jolanta Gore-Booth.
In Europe, around 800.000 citizens get diagnosed with a digestive cancer every year, and 500.000 of them die. The facts demonstrate that a significant part of these deaths is avoidable.
The use of best practices can save a lot of lives. Unfortunately, there is not one country in Europe where best practices are applied systematically.
For more information you can visit the Digestive Cancers Europe’s website.
