Kick-off meeting of the European Commission Initiative on Lung Cancer

The European Commission’s Initiative on Lung Cancer held its kick-off meeting on 8–9 October

Addressing disparities in lung cancer outcomes across EU countries, the initiative aims to develop evidence-based guidelines for prevention, screening and diagnosis, alongside a quality assurance scheme. The event marked an important step towards strengthening lung cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis and care across Europe.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) held on 8-9 October the kick-off meeting of the Working group of the European Commission Initiative on Lung Cancer.

Latest estimates (pdf) indicate that lung cancer is the second most diagnosed cancer in men and the third one in women in the EU. Moreover, lung cancer would represent the first most common cause of cancer death in men and the second one in women.

There is however considerable variability among EU-27 countries and regions.

The Commission is committed to contribute to the improvement of lung cancer prevention and care in Europe. It wants to address this variability and ensure all people in the EU can have equal access to same high level of care.

It therefore launched several initiatives, amongst them the one addressing lung cancer. The initiative aims to develop evidence-based guidelines for lung cancer prevention, screening and diagnosis, as well as a quality assurance scheme for healthcare services involved in the entire care pathway.

The initiative is supported by a working group composed of physicians, epidemiologists, researchers and patients/caregivers. All group members join the initiative on a voluntary basis after selection through a transparent process following a public call launched in 2025. 

The working group will rely on the support of specialised subgroups of experts that will be established in accordance with the respective topic under discussion and dissolved after completion of the tasks.

The aim of this first meeting was to introduce to the working group members the scope of the initiative, explain the methodology for the development of the European guidelines and the associated quality assurance scheme, and discuss the roadmap and next steps. 

The event marked an important step towards strengthening lung cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis and care across Europe.