EU EU4Health EUCanScreen
Project Title:
European Joint Action on Cancer Screening - EUCanScreen
Project Description:
The Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan has called for a new EU-Supported Cancer Screening Scheme to assure high performance of cancer screening programs across all Member States. The general objective of EUCanScreen is to assure sustainable implementation of high-quality screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers, as well as implementation of the recently recommended screening programs for lung, prostate and gastric cancers. EUCanScreen will facilitate the reduction of cancer burden and achieving equity across the EU.
Seven specific objectives have been set for EUCanScreen:
- ensuring full implementation of evidence based, cost-effective and quality-assured screening programs for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers.
- preparing for implementation of evidence-based, cost-effective and quality-assured screening programs for lung, prostate and gastric cancers.
- ensuring proper program governance and sustainability.
- ensuring better-quality, timelier and comparable data collection and monitoring of screening programs.
- ensuring equal access of eligible EU citizens to screening programs and reducing cancer inequalities.
- ensuring capacity building in cancer screening.
- ensuring collaboration and coherence with related projects funded under EU Programs.
The work-plan of EUCanScreen has been built on the results of previous and ongoing major EU activities in screening and is composed of eleven interlinked work packages. The consortium brings together well-performing screening programs and those in need of substantial improvements. Twenty-nine partnering countries are represented in the consortium, including 25 EU Member States, Ukraine, Moldova, Norway and Iceland. The project is coordinated by the University of Latvia and involves additional 28 competent authorities, 61 affiliated partners, and 7 associated partners.
UMIT TIROL contributes substantially to Work Package 10: Modelling and Health Technology Assessment to optimize cancer screening programmes across Europe. While UMIT TIROL is co-leading work package task 10.6 Estimation of benefits, harms and resource requirements of risk-based screening approaches with ERASMUS MC Netherlands, extensive involvement is also taking place in the following work package tasks:
- 10.1 Adapting cervical cancer screening programs to HPV vaccinated birth cohorts: A set of screening scenarios for cervical cancer will be modelled to identify feasible and optimal scenarios for each reference cohort.
- 10.2 Estimation of benefits, harms and resource requirements of current screening programs and the impact of addressing barriers and facilitating enablers: UMIT TIROL validates a colorectal cancer screening model to assess the comparative impact of alternative screening strategies.
- 10.3 Estimation of benefits, harms and resource requirements of different implementations of new screening approaches: Similar to 10.2, UMIT TIROL validates a model of prostate cancer screening.
Further involvement also takes place in other work packages, including 10.4, 10.5, 10.7 as well as 5.3 and 9.4.
For more information, visit:
EUCanScreen
For map of partners, visit:
EuCanScreen - Partners
Contact Information:
Project Coordinator: University of Latvia (Latvijas Universitāte)
Email: screening@lu.lv
Funding Program: European Commission: EU4Health Program. Grant Agreement number: 101162959
Budget: 38.7 Mio, UMIT TIROL share: 585,000 EUR
Duration: 01/06/2024 - 31/05/2028 (48 months)
More information on EU funding:
https://ec.europa.eu
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18-20 June 2025
International Cancer Screening Conference 2025 - "Shaping the Future of Cancer Screening" in Aarhus, Denmark
Assoc.-Prof. Gaby Sroczynski presented research on the “Evaluation of Benefits and Harms of Different Cervical Cancer Screening Strategies” as well as on “Evidence-based Decision Analysis Supporting Organized Population-based Screening for Colorectal Cancer”.
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10 June 2025
HIMSS Europe 2025 – European Health Conference (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) in Paris, France
Assoc.-Prof. Beate Jahn joined the workshop panel “A Holistic Approach to Assessment of AI in Cancer Screening” as part of the EUCanScreen Project.
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12-14 May 2025
EUCanScreen Consortium Event & Collaborative Sessions 2025 in Turin, Italy
UMIT TIROL participated in the Consortium meeting and collaborative sessions to facilitate and enhance cooperation among the various work packages and tasks.
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31 March - 1 April 2025
Workshop on Barriers and Facilitators in the Piloting and Implementation Phase of Colorectal Cancer Screening Programs in Vienna, Austria
UMIT TIROL joined the workshop in Vienna to discuss experiences, challenges and best practices in colorectal cancer screening programs across Europe. This workshop was part of Task 6.2 of the Joint Action EUCanScreen initiative and aimed to facilitate knowledge exchange among countries with established screening programs and those planning to develop them.
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22-23 January 2025
High-Impact Partner Working Meeting in Hall in Tirol, Austria
From left to right: Beate Jahn, Lárá Hallsson, Gaby Sroczynski, Milena Mühler, Simopekka Vänskä, Lennart Koch, Anna Suomenrinne-Nordvik, Uwe Siebert
In January 2025, we were pleased to welcome our project partner from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) to UMIT TIROL. That first in-person in-depth task meeting laid the foundation for a larger task meeting held in March online.
The focus of our task (T10.1) is to optimize cervical cancer screening programs, with a particular emphasis on adapting cervical cancer screening strategies to human papilloma virus (HPV)-vaccinated birth cohorts.
During the meetings, we successfully reviewed key transmission and progression models, defined reference cohorts, which are relevant for European countries, and worked on screening strategies for these reference cohorts. We further developed a questionnaire to receive feedback and input from European task partners regarding screening strategies relevant to them.
These efforts will support the adaptation and validation of the cervical cancer screening model for European countries, ultimately guiding the identification of feasible and optimal screening strategies tailored to their specific contexts.
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24-29 September 2024
EUCanScreen Kick-off Meeting in Riga, Latvia
The EUCanScreen Project, one of the most significant European Commission initiatives in the fight against cancer, was launched in Riga, Latvia. UMIT TIROL participated in discussions during the consortium meeting on effective screening methods and their potential to reduce cancer-related mortality. A framework for future collaborative activities and linkages between work packages was established.