The strength of European oncology

Abstract

2007 was a remarkable year for European oncology. Many scientific and political developments emphasised the scale, diversity and quality of cancer research and patient management in the complex community across Europe. Two reports emphasised the scale of cancer research in Europe. The second European Cancer Research Funding Survey published by the European Cancer Research Managers (ECRM) forum in September 2007 1 Eckhouse S, Grant L, Richard S. Investments and outputs of cancer research: from the public sector to industry. The second cancer research funding survey by the European Cancer Research Managers Forum (ECRM). www.ecrmforum.org; 2007. Google Scholar reported on the €3.2 billion spend on cancer research in the year 2004. Professor Richard Sullivan, the Chair of ECRM, emphasised the misperception by the public that underestimates the amount of cancer research carried out in Europe, evidenced particularly by the ‘huge amount of cancer research papers being published here’. In the years preceding this report 60% of European member states have increased their funding for cancer research in real terms, and identifying 155 non-commercial (public) funding organisations in Europe spending €1 971 million on the direct funding of cancer research represents a 38% increase on the previous 2 years. If one measure of cancer research output is the volume of cancer research publications, Europe compares very favourably with the USA at 52% and 48% of output or 1.3 versus 1.4 papers per billion Euro of GDP. Funding for cancer research and the papers resulting from this are the measures of input, but ultimately it is outcome in terms of patient management, quality of care and survival that is the real target.