The unified approach: Meeting the cancer challenges of the next decade

Introducing the Presidential session, Julio E. Celis, chairman of the Policy Committee of ECCO and scientific director of the Institute of Cancer Biology at the Danish Cancer Society in Copenhagen, said that the main objective of the session was to provide a unified approach to cancer research in Europe. ‘‘The issue facing us is that no single cancer institution in Europe has the necessary capacity, infrastructure or clinical mass to meet the challenges of translational cancer research,’’ he told the meeting, adding that there was a need to move from regional or national collaborations to continent wide collaborations. The challenge, he said, is to get all stakeholders to work together ‘‘in unison’’ at both the scientific and political levels. ‘‘It’s also necessary to ensure that patients remain the motivating force for cancer research in Europe,’’ he said (Figure 1). In 2004, EU Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin urged the cancer community to identify major priorities for cancer collaborations and make recommendations on how to improve the situation. One result was EUROCANþ Plus, funded by the sixth Framework Programme, which has called for a network of cancer centres for translational research. ‘‘It is now providing structure for the European cancer community in a way that has not been possible before,’’ said Celis (Brown, 2009). In order to meet the challenges of the next decade ECCO plans to hold yearly science policy forums, announced Celis. ‘‘ECCO constitutes 50,000 oncology related professionals placing the organisation in a unique position to provide a forum to ensure cancer, a major European societal challenge, stays at the top of the health and research policy agenda,’’ he said.