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Objective 6:
Quality of survivorship
To address the consequences of cancer
treatment such as long-term side effects,
to better understand the genetic background/
risk of an individual, and to improve quality
of life of survivors of childhood cancer.
With an 80% survival at five years, the number of childhood cancer survivors (currently
estimated to be more than 300,000 in Europe) is likely to continue to increase, and
improving their quality of life is a major goal. Two-thirds of survivors have late-occurring side
effects due to their treatments, which are severe in half of them, and have a strong impact on
their daily lives. It is anticipated that in 2030 there will be around 750,000 paediatric cancer
survivors in Europe.
The PanCare network was created in 2008 to address this issue [16]. PanCare is a pan-European
multidisciplinary network of health professionals, survivors of paediatric cancer and their
families, who collaborate to reduce the frequency, severity and impact of late treatment side
effects, with the aim of ensuring that every survivor of childhood cancer receives the best
possible long-term care. In addition, several survivors’ associations were created recently to
empower survivors and to help them tackle the issues raised above.
Strategy
g
To improve awareness of the needs of childhood cancer survivors, together with them,
and facilitate research on it;
g
To empower survivors to take the responsibility for their own follow-up, ensuring that they
are well-informed on what to be aware of, how and when to access care and follow-up,
and who to turn to if and when they need to;
g
To encourage health organisations to address the issues of long-term follow-up and ease
the transition to adult medicine;
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A EUROPEAN CANCER PLAN FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
From AIEOP. Credit Attilio Rossetti photographer, Italy
Credit Joke Emmerechts photographer, Belgium