BREATHING IN A NEW ERA

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LUNG CANCER POLICIES ACROSS EUROPE

Austria Belgium Finland France Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Spain Sweden UK

Lung cancer is a focus for research

Lung cancer is a focus for research

T

he research domain looks at research funding and the use of population registries. These registries

can support a wide range of activities, one of which is the facilitation of high-quality research.

Three countries performed well in this domain: Austria, Finland and the UK, followed by Belgium, the

Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The worst-performing country was Poland, followed by France,

Romania and Spain.

Registries exist, but quality and coverage must improve

Population-based cancer registries collect and store data on patients diagnosed with cancer. They

are a key resource for understanding cancer burden, prevention, treatment and outcomes, as well as

providing insights into national cancer control programmes. The epidemiological data gathered assist

in the evaluation of past performance and help plan for future needs.71, 72 However, previous research

has suggested that registry coverage in some European countries has been below expectations, largely

owing to concerns about data protection and consent.^73

Cancer registries exist in all 11 of our countries, but they vary in quality. Seven countries have high-

quality national registries: Austria, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK.

High-quality regional registries are found in France, Poland and Spain. Romania’s registry was not found

to be of high quality. Of the countries we studied, four have high-quality complete vital registration

data (such as on births and deaths): Austria, Finland, Romania and the UK. Medium-quality vital

registration was found in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.

Many clinical participants reported that a clinically based cancer registry would provide helpful

insights into the care they deliver to patients. Participants in the UK and France generally felt that

systems were either in place or being built, whereas those from Austria, Finland and Spain wanted first

to observe the French experience with that country ’s new system, the Health Data Hub which launches

in autumn 2019. In Finland, participants wanted to ensure that any new system would make use of

current technology so that physicians would not be overloaded with another set of forms to complete.

Participants in Norway were also keen for change, and noted that their INSPIRE project, launched in

2019, aims to improve the quality of lung cancer data.

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