Challenges for children and adolescents with cancer in Europe: The SIOP‐Europe agenda

Abstract

In Europe, 6,000 young people die of cancer yearly, the commonest disease causing death beyond the age of 1 year. In addition, 300,000–500,000 European citizens are survivors of a childhood cancer and up to 30% of them have severe long-term sequelae of their treatment. Increasing both cure and quality of cure are the two goals of the European paediatric haematology/oncology community. SIOPE coordinates and facilitates research, care and training which are implemented by the 18 European study groups and 23 national paediatric haematology/oncology societies. SIOPE is the European branch of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology and one of the six founding members of the European Cancer Organisation. SIOPE is preparing its strategic agenda to assure long-term sustainability of clinical and translational research in paediatric malignancies over the next 15 years. SIOPE tackles the issues of equal access to standard care and research across Europe and improvement of long term follow up. SIOPE defined a comprehensive syllabus for training European specialists. A strong partnership with parent, patient and survivor organisations is being developed to successfully achieve the goals of this patient-centred agenda. SIOPE is advocating in the field of EU policies, such as the Clinical Trials Regulation and the Paediatric Medicine Regulation, to warrant that the voice of young people is heard and their needs adequately addressed. SIOPE and the European community are entirely committed to the global agenda against childhood cancers to overcome the challenges to increasing both cure and quality of cure of young people with cancer. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2014;61:1551–1557.

Gender Inequalities in Health Over the Life Course. Attitudes Towards III-Health in Men and Women Treated for Childhood Cancer

“…It accounts for only 1% of all cancers. Each year, in Europe, 15 000 children are diagnosed with cancer; it is estimated that there are currently over 300 000 individuals in Europe who were treated for childhood cancer (Vassal et al 2014). Survival rates of childhood cancer have drastically improved over the last few decades, from 30% to 80% (Trama et al 2016).…”

The SIOPE strategic plan: A European cancer plan for children and adolescents

“…Though the area of paediatric haematology-oncology is small, it is extremely complex and covers at least 60 different types of cancer in a population ranging from new-borns to teenagers, and even more when biological markers ("biomarkers") are considered [6].…”

Maligne bolesti u pedijatrijskom uzrastu

“…Raširenost bolesti značajno smanjuje procenat preživljavanja i povećava troškove lečenja. Najnoviji podaci velikih internacionalnih studija ukazuju da čak oko 60% adulta ima makar jedan hroničan problem kao posledicu lečenja maligniteta u pedijatrijskom uzrastu, a 30% dugotrajne sekvele [7].…”

“…U odnosu na vrstu maligne bolesti, u tabeli 2 je prikazan procenat preživljavanja u razvijenim zemljama [4]. U Evropi trenutno živi i radi oko 400.000 ljudi koji su u detinjstvu izlečeni od različitih malignih bolesti [7]. Međutim, bez obzira na ohrabrujuće rezultate, rak je i dalje vodeći uzrok smrtnosti u pedijatrijskoj populaciji nakon prve godine života.…”