Ahead of the World Cancer Day on February 4, the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) present the first Country Cancer Profiles under the European Cancer Inequalities Registry for all EU Member States, Norway and Iceland.

The profiles highlights include:

• Representing 26% of all deaths, cancer is the second cause of mortality in the EU after circulatory diseases.
• There is almost a two-fold difference in cancer mortality across countries, and there are wide disparities in cancer mortality across gender.
• There are broad socio-economic inequalities in cancer mortality. Such disparities are partly explained by differences in exposure to risk factors such as smoking, obesity, harmful alcohol consumption or air pollution. Overall risk factors tend to be more prevalent among men and among low-income and low-education groups.
• The challenges EU countries face in providing high quality cancer care differ. Some countries are well equipped, but face shortages in qualified health care staff, while others have a high number of qualified physicians, but lack, for example, radiation therapy equipment.
• Spending on prevention increased over the past years. However, it still only accounts for 3,4% of overall health spending.

More.