The 2022/3 PrEvCan Campaign – Cancer Prevention Across Europe
On World Cancer Day (WCD), 4 February 2024, EONS launched the ‘Cancer Prevention Across Europe’ Position Statement to support the WCD goal to Close The Care Gap. The Statement secures the commitment of cancer workforce organisations at the frontline of cancer care in Europe to helping reduce the growing burden of cancer and close inequalities in healthcare systems.
The Statement celebrates and secures the achievements of the ground-breaking “PrEvCan – Cancer Prevention Across Europe” campaign which was led by EONS with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) as key campaign partner, and 66 other partners (See Map further below). Please join us. Together we can reduce the risk.
View the Position Statement Launch Video
An outstanding year
In October 2023 at the ESMO Congress in Madrid, Spain, Dr Lena Sharp, who led the ground-breaking, Europe-wide “Cancer Prevention Across Europe” campaign (PrEvCan), looked back at an outstanding year’s work aimed at reducing the burden of cancer and outlined the goals, achievements and conclusions. She thanked all those who had helped make this campaign so impactful. (View Lena’s presentation)
How it all began
The PrEvCan campaign was initiated and led by the European Oncology Nursing Society (EONS) with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) as key campaign partner and the support of more than 60 other international and national organisations across Europe (see clickable map below on this page).
PrEvCan launched at the opening of the ESMO Congress in Paris, in September 2022. The campaign was based on the European Code Against Cancer (ECAC) which sets out 12 recommendations ranging from physical activity and dietary guidelines all the way to tobacco use and second-hand smoke.
Resources in every European language
Each month was dedicated to promoting one of the ECAC recommendations and highlighting the scientific evidence supporting it, with the dual objective of increasing awareness of how to prevent cancer among the general public and of providing healthcare professionals, with a more comprehensive toolkit for communicating the importance of cancer prevention effectively. The resource toolkit for each month is still available to download from the Further Information of this page in a huge range of languages. Here you can also find a wide variety of videos on prevention themes.
The campaign’s reach
Throughout the year, participants were encouraged to share what they were doing to support the PrEvCan campaign – post photos and short videos on social media, tagging: #PrEvCan #CANCERCODE The campaign messages spread far and wide!
Thousands of people across Europe visited this campaign page, downloaded the toolkits, viewed the videos and pushed the campaign messages to the key audiences in their country.
What next? The campaign evaluation and legacy
A full Evaluation of every aspect of the campaign will take place during the coming months.
To ensure this assessment captures everything the campaign achieved throughout Europe we invite all participants and partners to Let us know what you did in YOUR country – Please use the Activity Form.
(You will find reports in the Further Information column, under ‘Campaign Reports’, about some exciting PrEvCan campaigns in Estonia, Finland and Greece, to help you see what others have done.)
The evaluation findings, including key data, will be published on this campaign page.
A Position Paper is currently being framed which will be launched by World Cancer Day on 4 February 2024. This paper will be the result of an extensive consultation process and focus on core areas for improving cancer control and care. It will set the framework to reduce the growing burden of cancer and to close the inequalities in health care systems, and will be adopted by the cancer workforce organisations who are at the frontline of cancer care in Europe.
A beginning, not an ending
Reflecting on this exceptional year, PrEvCan lead Lena Sharp said: “The cancer prevention campaign is not really ending, it would be truer to say that it is actually beginning. Europe urgently needs a renewed commitment to cancer prevention that recognises the growing challenges, but also the opportunities to overcome them. Together, healthcare providers and other stakeholders, cancer patients and the wider community, all have a responsibility to take this campaign forward; to reduce the cancer burden in Europe for everyone.”
Map – click on each country to see the logos of PrEvCan supporting partners
Download full list of PrEvCan supporting partners
Pan-European Partners
ESMO
ECPC
Onco-Alert
Youth Cancer Europe
International Sport and Culture Association
Coalition of healthcare
professionals against tobacco