Action grants on collection tasks in relation to updating the European Cancer Information System to monitor and assess cancer screening programmes

Expected results and impact

The expected result is the collection of the relevant cancer screening data from the Member States.
This action aims at improving the monitoring of the implementation of cancer screening programmes across the Union, and will have an impact on the implementation of such programmes by providing the Member States with evidence-based information to strengthen their programmes.

Specific mandatory deliverables and/or milestones

None

Specific indicators for reporting purposes

The applicants will include the following specific action-level indicators and related reporting activities in their proposals:
- number of data providers (thematic coverage);
- number of Member States participating;
- number of data/themes collected and made available on cancer screening;
- number of performance and outcome indicators made available on cancer screening;
- number of data sets tested through the piloting phase;
- number of access/downloads of the data.
The applicants are required to include in their proposals additional specific action-level indicators which will be agreed with the HaDEA during the grant agreement preparation.

Background and policy context
The European Cancer Information System (ECIS) managed by the Joint Research Centre provides the latest information on indicators that quantify cancer burden across Europe. It permits the exploration of geographical patterns and temporal trends of incidence, mortality and survival data across Europe for the major cancer entities. The survival rate for cervical, breast and colorectal cancer is a key indicator of how effective healthcare systems are in cancer care, reflecting both efficiency in early detection and the effectiveness of treatment. There is a need to further develop the ECIS to enable the monitoring and assessment of cancer screening programmes, which will require the collection of the relevant data from those entities in the Member States responsible for cancer screening.
This action supports the implementation of a Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan flagship initiative and links with the European Health Data Space and implements the EU4Health Programme’s general objective of improving and fostering health in the Union (Article 3, point (a)) through the specific objectives defined in Article 4, points (a), (f) and (i) of Regulation (EU) 2021/522.

Objectives pursued
This action supports the linking of data provided by the cancer screening programmes into ECIS with a view to allowing the permanent monitoring of the screening programmes, including the performance indicators.
The action will consist in the collection of data from entities in the Member States that are responsible for collecting data on cancer screening, in order to provide this data to ECIS, and develop a piloting of the new ECIS functionality as well as a new separate section to ensure a permanent collection and monitoring of the coverage and performance indicators of population-based cancer screening across the Union.

Description of the activities to be funded under this topic

1. Preparatory work through meetings (5) and workshops (5) to create a platform in which data and indicators on population-based cancer screening programmes are collected, collated and further assessed under the European Cancer Information System.
2. Actions to support the first piloting of the platform developed under point 1, including collection of available datasets related to breast, colorectal and cervical cancer screening programmes.