Over the last five years, the ERN PaedCan brought together representatives from numerous countries across the EU, enabling the accreditation of different centres.
In 2015, SIOPE launched its strategic plan, with one of the objectives being to strive for equal access across Europe to standard care (in both diagnosis and treatment), expertise and clinical research. The ERN PaedCan was a great instrument to address this objective and actively integrate it into SIOP Europe's core activities.
Despite the differences between the setup of the ERNs and the already existing paediatric oncology network, we managed to raise the visibility of many countries where access to care is not of an ideal standard and bring people together in a forum for discussion.
In collaboration with the clinical trial groups, the ERN PaedCan successfully launched the (ongoing) ESCP project, a set of guidelines accessible to every child in Europe for the best standards of clinical practice for each of the diseases. The organisation of numerous educational webinars and the twinning programmes also complement the core activities of the ERN PaedCan.
It is now essential to evaluate and understand what the ERN PaedCan means for our NaPHOS and the parent and patient advocates. This analysis will help determine and plan the following stages of the ERN PaedCan and ensure that its benefits are known and accessible across Europe.
Over the next ten years, the European Beaten Cancer Plan aims to create a network of comprehensive cancer centres that can receive 90% of the cancer patients in Europe. Therefore, we need to define how the Paediatric Oncology ecosystem can integrate within this network, emphasising our approach and the need for funding on a national level.
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