The SIOPE strategic plan: A European cancer plan for children and adolescents

Abstract

Executive summaryCancer in young people is rare, but it is still a major health issue in Europe. Each year, more than 6,000 young people in Europe die of cancer. There are more than 300,000 European childhood cancer survivors (in 2020, they will be nearly half a million): two-thirds of them have some late side effects of treatment, that are severe and impact on the daily life of half of those affected.Within the European Network for Cancer research in Children and Adolescents (ENCCA), SIOPE and the European paediatric haematology-oncology community have established a long-term sustainable Strategic Plan to increase the cure rate and the quality of survivorship for children and young people with cancer over the next ten years. The ultimate goal is to increase the disease-and late-effect-free survival after 10 years from the diagnosis, and beyond.

Translation and cultural adaptation of the US National Cancer Institute's patient-reported outcome (PRO) version of the CTCAE for Italian pediatric oncology populations

“…Advances in pediatric oncology treatment have led to a significant increase in survival rates of up to 80% from previous rates of 10% in European countries. Progress has been achieved through the systematic conduct of multinational clinical trials to assess the efficacy of multimodal approaches involving a combination of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery, along with increased expertise in supportive care (Vassal et al, 2016).…”

The ‘Survivorship Passport’ for childhood cancer survivors

“…The European Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOPE) has continuously supported the SurPass initiative since its inclusion in the ENCCA, ExPO-r-Net and PanCar-eSurFup projects and has included the SurPass in the SIOPE Strategic Plan 'A European Cancer Plan for Children and Adolescents' (https://www.siope.eu/SIOPE_ StrategicPlan2015/) [30]. More importantly, SIOPE supports the European National Paediatric Haemato-Oncology Societies in liaising with health ministries to ensure that this model will be effectively adopted and introduced into national healthcare systems in Europe.…”

Recommendations for the organisation of care in paediatric radiation oncology across Europe: a SIOPE–ESTRO–PROS–CCI-Europe collaborative project in the framework of the JARC

“…Despite these efforts, disparities in survival rates of more than 20% and long-term side-effects are a reality across Europe [2e6]. To reduce these inequalities and to improve health outcomes in European countries, a project entitled 'European Standards of Care for Children with Cancer' had been initiated with the support of the European Union (EU) [7,8]. This project consolidated the ideal requirements for centres specialised in the treatment of children with cancer across Europe.…”