{"id":307660,"date":"2026-01-28T08:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T08:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/307660\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T08:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T08:11:10","slug":"eu-initiatives-to-prevent-cancer-and-improve-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/307660\/","title":{"rendered":"EU initiatives to prevent cancer and improve care"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Reproductive<\/a>image: \u00a9mi-viri | iStock
\n Learn how the EU is preventing cervical cancer in 2026 with vaccination, screening programmes, and better care across Europe<\/p>\n

January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, a global call to action highlighting prevention, early detection, and better care. In the European Union, cervical cancer remains one of the most common cancers among women aged 15\u201344, yet it is highly preventable and treatable with effective strategies. Building on this awareness, the EU is taking comprehensive steps to address the disease.<\/p>\n

Through Europe\u2019s Beating Cancer Plan, the EU is working to eliminate cervical cancer by boosting HPV vaccination,<\/a> strengthening screening programmes, and improving the quality of care across member states. Key projects, such as EUCervScreen QA, are updating clinical guidelines and developing a European Quality Assurance scheme to ensure high\u2011quality prevention and treatment pathways, reduce inequalities, and improve patient survival outcomes.
\nUnderstanding cervical cancer<\/p>\n

Specifically, the plan aims to prevent cervical cancer by vaccinating young people against HPV, with a goal of 90% coverage for girls and a significant increase in vaccination rates for boys by 2030.<\/p>\n

Project objectives and new guidelines
\nDespite existing European guidelines and cancer plans, there are around 33,000 cases of cervical cancer and 15,000 related deaths in the EU. To address these persistent challenges, the EU4Health project, EUCervScreen QA<\/a>, implemented by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in collaboration with the European Commission\u2019s Joint Research Centre, was created to improve cervical cancer outcomes and research. Work on the project began in 2023, with two main objectives:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Updating the European clinical practice guidelines for cervical cancer prevention, including HPV vaccination, cervical screening, and treatment of pre-cancerous lesions;<\/li>\n
  2. Developing a European Quality Assurance (QA) scheme that covers the entire care pathway from primary to tertiary prevention, functioning as the vehicle for the implementation of the European guidelines and improving cancer care.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The project has successfully finalised eight evidence-based recommendations<\/a> on cervical cancer screening start and stop age, and test type, offering clear explanations of care options, including their benefits and risks, to allow healthcare providers to make informed choices, along with rating the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendation associated with each intervention.<\/p>\n

    Furthermore, the project has developed quality indicators of HPV-based screening programmes, including for risk-based triage of HPV positive women, HPV detection technologies (DNA vs. mRNA vs. others), sample collection strategies (self-vaginal, self-urine vs. provider), screening intervals and screening in vaccinated populations.<\/p>\n

    The EUCervScreen QA<\/a> has progressed with the development of requirements for the quality assurance scheme, starting with treatment-related pathways and general requirements. This ongoing work ensures that quality standards evolve alongside clinical best practices throughout the EU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"image: \u00a9mi-viri | iStock Learn how the EU is preventing cervical cancer in 2026 with vaccination, screening programmes,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[29175,18,5766,135,19,17,12000],"class_list":{"0":"post-307660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-cervical-cancer","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-european-commission","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-womens-health"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115971718118313019","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}