BREATHING IN A NEW ERA

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LUNG CANCER POLICIES ACROSS EUROPE

“B

reathing in a new era: a comparative analysis of lung cancer policies across Europe” is a report

by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) that examines the burden of lung cancer in Europe

and how countries are responding to its challenge.

The research centres on assessing unmet needs within health systems and opportunities for

improvement. We analyse how countries can build awareness, improve prevention, early detection,

diagnosis and prognosis, and ensure access to high-quality treatment—including supportive and

palliative care. Key to good practice for many of these activities is ensuring that the patient voice is

heard, including through the role of patient organisations.

Our goal is to identify and improve outcomes for those with lung cancer across Europe. We hope to

do this by helping to provide the impetus for the improvement of cancer plans and national policies.

The use of a benchmarking scorecard allows countries to see how they are performing compared to

their peers and to then use that insight to drive change at home.

The EIU carried out an evidence review and convened an advisory board to help design a scorecard

of the key building blocks of good practice in health policy and system development in the field of

lung cancer. Alongside this, EIU researchers attended national workshops featuring a mixture of

stakeholders to understand national-level challenges. Resulting from these, and published alongside

this policy paper, are a series of country profiles.

The research programme was sponsored by MSD. We would like to thank the following individuals

and organisations for sharing their insight and experience.

l Mr Alfonso Aguarón , Project Manager, Lung Cancer Europe (LUCE), Spain

l Professor António Araùjo , Head of Medical Oncology, Centro Hospitalar do Porto, Portugal

l Dr Ioannis Boukovinas , MD, PhD, Head of the Bioclinic Oncology Unit of Thessaloniki, Greece

l Professor John Field , Director of Research, Roy Castle Lung Cancer Research Programme,

University of Liverpool, UK

l Dr Marina Garassino , MD, National Cancer Institute of Milan, Italy

l Professor Pilar Garrido , Head of Thoracic Tumours Unit, University Hospital Ramón y Cajal

(IRYCIS), Spain

The Economist Intelligence Unit bears sole responsibility for the content of this report. The findings

and views expressed in the report do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsor. The EIU team

involved in this report consisted of Mary Bussell, Darshni Nagaria, Anelia Boshnakova and Alan Lovell.

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