Towards better stakeholder engagement: looking back to the World Cancer Day 2023 results

This year’s World Cancer Day campaign with a catchy slogan “Close The Care Gap” among other things, provided an in-depth look at the socioeconomic factors, such as cultural contexts, gender norms, income and education levels, as well as the prejudices, discrimination and assumptions based on age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability and lifestyle that create wide disparities in cancer prevention, incidence and survival.

As part of the campaign,  a call was also launched for renewed action to improve cancer awareness, practice cancer prevention, support innovations in diagnostics and treatment, and address inequities and weaknesses in health systems exposed to COVID-19.

This year’s campaign gave a renewed impetus to Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, which is a great example of how we can make progress together in closing the gap in cancer care. Through this plan, the European Union is taking a more comprehensive approach to cancer control and prevention, which will undoubtedly help close the care gap and position Europe as leader in the fight against cancer. The initiative aims to reduce the mortality rate of cancers in Europe and collaborates with partners in countries across Europe to ensure that everyone has access to top quality medical care.

The World Cancer Day might be the right moment to be reminded of that fact how much Europe and the European Commission is dedicated to tackling the issue of cancer in the health domain. In its efforts to address this major challenge, the Commission has set up a wide range of initiatives and policies, such as increased  funding for cancer research, enhanced collaboration between Member States, and improved access to high-quality treatment of the disease. Additionally, the Commission is actively working to promote early detection and prevention, as well as reduce the stigmatisation of those affected by cancer.

In order to advance cancer health equity, it is essential to engage non-health sectors and increase cross-sectoral collaboration. Ultimately, the goal of cross-sectoral collaboration for cancer care is to ensure that patients receive the highest care, with all stakeholders working together to improve the system.

To this end REBECCA Project is working towards better stakeholder engagement and searching the ways to identify the needs of all stakeholders who can benefit from improved research results supported by Real-World Data (RWD).