A European approach can reduce cancer rates by 40% - Cyrus Engerer

Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer believes that the incidence of cancer in Europe can be reduced by 40%.

“At European level we need to have a common plan between Member States to fight cancer to address the inequalities that exist between countries and to reduce burdens on patients, their families and on national health systems,” he said.

“We need to come together for more support and cooperation at European level in our fight against cancer,” he said when he addressed a conference organised on World Cancer Day by the National Cancer Platform entitled ‘The Cancer Patient in Extraordinary circumstances’.

Engerer spoke about the great challenges that cancer patients and their families are going through during the COVID-19 Pandemic. He spoke about cancer treatments that have been rejected or postponed, the vulnerability of patients taking treatments and medicines that affect the immune system and the fact that these patients could not rely on their loved ones and their usual support system for comfort during this period.

“Despite the challenges, there is still a lot that we can do in this field to help save more lives. Scientific studies at European level show that 40% of cancer cases in Europe can be prevented. It is therefore imperative to further strengthen prevention systems for early detection,” Engerer said.

Engerer also delved into silver linings one could draw from the COVID-19 pandemic, where we have seen EU Member States come together to ensure the supply of vaccines to all European citizens equally. He said that using the same approach in the field of cancer can help eliminate discrepancies that exist between EU countries today, for example with regard to investments by different Member States allocated for this disease and the procurement of medicine and treatments for cancer patients.

“As a new Member of the European Parliament I’m working in the Environment and Public Health committees and in the Special Committee Beating Cancer. In this context, during the past three months, I held a number of meetings with Maltese professionals working on cancer, people from the medical field, as well as various NGOs to understand the Maltese realities of the disease better,” Engerer concluded.

He urged everyone involved in this sector not to hesitate to make contact to share any observations as this is important for him to be able to represent Malta’s interests in this sector in the best possible way.