Members of the Special Committee on Beating Cancer (BECA) discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer prevention, health services and cancer patients and research, in the European Parliament in Brussels. Extracts from the meeting. Statements by Mark LAWLER , Co-Chair of the European Cancer Organisation Special Network on Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer, Solange PETERS, President, European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), Dineke ZEEGERS PAGET, Executive Director, European Public Health Association (EUPHA), Véronique TRILLET-LENOIR (Renew, FR), Co-rapporteur, and Bartosz ARŁUKOWICZ (EPP, PL), BECA Chair and Co-rapporteur.

Brussels

meeting

healthcare safety (T)

fight against cancer (T)

ARŁUKOWICZ, Bartosz (EPP, PL)

TRILLET-LENOIR, Véronique (Renew, FR)

Coronavirus outbreak (T)

Special committee on Beating Cancer

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer prevention, health services and cancer patients and research: extracts from BECA Committee meeting

Title: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer prevention, health services and cancer patients and research: extracts from BECA Committee meeting

SOUNDBITE (English), Mark LAWLER , Co-Chair of the European Cancer Organisation Special Network on Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer , 1.5 Million fewer cancer patients have been seen in the first year of the pandemic. And that's not because cancer is going down, but because we're actually missing and cancer diagnoses and cancer treatments right across Europe. And this is a very worrying occurrence.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mark LAWLER , Co-Chair of the European Cancer Organisation Special Network on Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer, 100 million cancer screening tests were not performed in Europe as a result of the pandemic. Again, another very worrying statistic. Next slide, please.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mark LAWLER , Co-Chair of the European Cancer Organisation Special Network on Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer, 1 in 2 cancer patients in Europe at some stage did not receive the surgical or chemotherapy at the right time. Among them, 5 are still not receiving it due to delays. Again, really important. But we change this and we change this now. We cannot wait, cancer, won't wait.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mark LAWLER , Co-Chair of the European Cancer Organisation Special Network on Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer, The pandemic unfortunately has taken its toll on health care workers right across Europe. 4 out of 10 feeling burned out. 3 out of 10 showing signs of clinical depression.

SOUNDBITE (English), Solange PETERS, President, European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), Immediate impact regarding cancer patients are the following. First of all, we propose that the patient should all get access to a vaccine or these patients we treat who are at highest risk of dying or having complications from it. Of course, we need also to diligently collect data about the efficacy of the vaccine. Also, as we are told by my colleagues, restart preventive measures, including all the screening programmes, and prepare the whole healthcare systems for a potential surge in cancer cases. And probably, unfortunately, at later stage of diagnosis.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dineke ZEEGERS PAGET, Executive Director, European Public Health Association (EUPHA) , We've seen with covid is basically two big things for cancer. One is an increase in risk behaviour of the population. They're staying at home. They have unhealthy diets, they drink more alcohol and they don't really can go out and do some sports and these are all risk factors for cancer in the future. The other thing we've seen is that there is delays in screening and my colleagues frequently talking have already addressed this. So we expect that after covid has subsided and we hope it's going to be sooner rather than later, there's going to be an increase in cancer diagnosis, that there's going to be an increase in treatment for cancer, a demand for treatment, and also the late identification or late diagnosis obviously leads to a higher burden on health care.

SOUNDBITE (French), V&#233;ronique TRILLET-LENOIR (Renew, FR), Co-rapporteur, Facilitate access, as I said, to electronic medical consultations, to telemedicine, access to remote psycho social services. Obviously adopt European plans against shortages. Continue to assess the impact of Covid and ensure timely access to Covid 19 vaccines that are very important for cancer patients. A question was asked about this. The only risk for cancer patients is to be less susceptible to vaccines because they are immunocompromised. But they must be prioritized.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Bartosz AR&#321;UKOWICZ (EPP, PL), BECA Chair and Co-rapporteur, Today, we said that it was extremely important during the work of the Committee on Combating Cancer because patients with cancer in this era of pandemic disease have very difficult access to early diagnosis for early treatment, for timely treatment. For effective treatment, we have hundreds of thousands of people who have passed away in this period, and unfortunately they were not just victims. They were also people who could not treat their rare cancer disease because the pandemic has engulfed Europe and the world. And today the challenge for all of us for the European Parliament, for the committee, is to build a safe system in Europe that will allow people with cancer, among others, for cancer to be treated despite the hardships of the prevailing pandemic. I call it a working network of white hospitals, or hospitals that are exceptionally protected from the virus so that they can help those who, despite the pandemic, have cancer.