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Berlin – At the halfway point of the “National Decade Against Cancer”, experts have drawn a positive conclusion – but also see a need for action. “Everything we have started is now on the right track. We should continue consistently,” said Michael Hallek, Chairman of the German Advisory Council on the Assessment of Developments in the Health Care System today at an event in Berlin.

The Decade Against Cancer was declared by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry of Health for the period 2019 to 2029. Several, sometimes very specific, goals are linked to the decade. These include:

• The quality of life of cancer patients should be improved. By the end of the decade, cancer should be cured or manageable in the long term in three out of four patients thanks to modern early detection and treatment methods.
• The number of cancer cases is to be reduced through increased prevention. This will gradually reduce the proportion of preventable cancer cases.
• Everyone in Germany should have access to high-quality oncological care.
• Germany is to become an internationally leading location for patient-oriented cancer research and oncological care.

In his review, Hallek particularly highlighted the expansion of the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), a cooperation between the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg (DKFZ), university hospitals and other research partners.

One of the project’s tasks is to put research findings into practice. “There was a lack of translation from knowledge to product,” said Hallek. “Our results are usually refined in other countries and then we re-import them at great expense from the USA, sometimes from China. That cannot continue.”

“Cancer is a great enemy,” said Hallek. Germany must be a leader in the research and development of drugs for the global market. “Otherwise we have no chance of generating long-term prosperity.”

In addition to the expansion of the NCT network, the pillars of the “Decade Against Cancer” also include prevention, the generation of knowledge through networking research and care, and the identification of unresolved questions in cancer research.

In summary, Hallek said: “I believe we are on track in expanding the NCT network and in the programs on the major unresolved issues. A lot has also happened in prevention.” More could be achieved in terms of patient participation and the promotion of young talent. “We spend billions on patient care.” But too little knowledge is drawn from this care. “A paper is currently being drawn up on this, on short-term and then long-term goals as a system analysis.”

Michael Baumann, Chairman of the Board of the DKFZ, particularly pointed out the need for action in the prevention of cancer. It is known that 40 percent of all cancers can be prevented with the help of primary prevention – such as avoiding risk factors and vaccinations. However, in Germany, implementation often fails. He cited Germany’s lax approach to smoking as an example.

According to the Center for Cancer Registry Data (ZfKD), around half a million people in Germany develop cancer every year (2020: 493,200). Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) assumes that around half of these could be avoided with preventive measures. Other experts assume that there are slightly fewer preventable cases. According to the ZfKD, the most common new cancer cases in men occurred in the prostate (25.1%), lungs (13.0%) and colon (11.7%). Women were most frequently affected by tumors in the breast (30.5%), colon (10.5%) and lungs (9.8%). © fri/aerzteblatt.de