“In 2020, as we all battled the Covid-19 pandemic, many of us were fighting a silent fight: that against cancer.
"By launching her plan to fight cancer on Wednesday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, recalled a reality obscured by the health crisis: in 2020, while the world was only talking about Covid, 2.7 million patients have been diagnosed with cancer, and 1.3 million patients have died from it.
In France, 3.8 million people live with cancer and each year there are 382,000 new cases, and 157,000 deaths.
However, recalls the Élysée, 40% of cancers are preventable, due to our lifestyle or our environment.
France thus wants to save itself 60,000 preventable cancers per year by 2040.
On the occasion of World Cancer Day, Wednesday, France and Europe are each launching ambitious plans for the fight.
The key is 4 billion euros for the European Union, 1.74 billion over five years for France.
Either in France the renewal of 1.45 billion euros of credits allocated under the 2014-2019 plan, plus
"an increase of nearly 20%"
for new objectives, indicates the Elysee, which promises that half of the budget will be devoted to research,
“because it is through knowledge that we can progress”
.
This will include improving prevention (for example to better understand the psychosocial mechanisms involved in adherence or not to it), investing in new screening, reducing the after-effects, particularly in children, or to better understand cancers with poor prognosis.
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For France as for Europe, the priorities are very similar: improving prevention (in particular by fighting against smoking and, more timidly, against alcohol) and screening (which must be more widely accessible and more convincing);
improve the quality of life of patients and survivors, by combating the consequences of the disease;
improve patient equality for access to expert centers and innovative treatments.
The French strategy also wants to insist on, on the one hand, childhood cancers, on the other hand cancers with a poor prognosis (pancreas, lungs, certain breast and childhood cancers, etc.) where the rates five-year survival rates are less than 33%.
Emmanuel Macron will also insist on the necessary investments in digital health, pursuing his ambition to make France the European leader in the field.
The head of state will present his strategy in a pre-recorded video, and is due to visit the Gustave-Roussy cancer treatment center in Villejuif on Wednesday.
There he will meet caregivers from the pediatric oncology department, as well as young patients and their families.
Second step with an Inserm immunotherapy unit.
“The President of the Republic thus intends to express his gratitude to researchers and caregivers, and to express his sympathy towards patients.
The fight against cancer is a fight, ”
enthusiastic his teams on Wednesday.
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If the announced budget is set for five years, is the strategy defined for the next ten years,
"to show the commitment of the State and give the actors visibility on the orientations".
Driven for the first by Jacques Chirac who had made it one of his priority projects, the previous cancer plans had a more modest horizon, of three to four years each (2003-2007, 2009-2013, 2014-2019).
It remains to be hoped that the commitments made will be honored even if the power changes hands ... A first “road map”, drawn up for five years, will be revised and renewed for 2026-2030.
“These inequalities are unacceptable in a European Health Union that seeks to protect everyone.
There should be no first and second class patients in the EU.
"
European plan to fight cancer.
For France as for the European Union, very precise and quantified objectives are displayed.
The Élysée wants to increase the number of screenings performed each year by 1 million (currently, there are 9 million) and reduce the proportion of patients suffering from sequelae from two thirds to one third.
Europe hopes to vaccinate 90% of the eligible population against infection-related cancers (HPV) by 2030, and wants the same proportion of target audiences to access screening with greater equality within Europe: currently , recalls the Commission, the rate of eligible people having access to early detection oscillates for breast cancer between ... 6 and 90%!
Survival rates are also highly variable: for colorectal cancer, for example, five-year survival ranges from 49% to 68% of patients across the continent.
“These inequalities are unacceptable in a European Health Union which seeks to protect everyone
, deplore the authors of the European plan.
There should be no first and second class patients in the EU. "
A
"register of cancer inequalities"
will therefore be set up in 2021 to
"identify trends, disparities and inequalities between Member States and regions"
.
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On tobacco, France and Europe are on the same wavelength even if they express it differently: it is a question of eradicating the first provider of preventable cancers.
Tobacco is responsible for 45,000 annual cancer deaths, says the Inca, while the ACT-Alliance against tobacco recalls that it is involved in 17 different cancers, including 8 out of 10 lung cancers and 70% of upper aerodigestive tract.
France therefore wants to see the emergence of
"a first tobacco-free generation in 2032"
, Europe has set itself a target of less than 5% of smokers in the population by 2040.
Fight against alcohol, "not with a hygienic vision but with a vision of the fight against dependence".
Elysium
If the stated objectives against tobacco are clear, the fight against the dangers of alcohol promises to be gentler: the Élysée intends to fight against its ravages
"not with a hygienic vision but with a vision of the fight against dependence"
.
Remember that alcohol still represents
"the second preventable cause of death from cancer, responsible each year for 28,000 new cases"
and 16,000 deaths, indicates the National Institute against cancer on its website.
Which recalls that it is not necessary to be dependent on alcohol to die from it: for certain cancers,
"the risk increases from a consumption of less than one glass per day"
.
