Among the biggest policy initiatives targeting cancer at the European Union (EU) level, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan is one of the most important and ambitious. Launched in 2021, it set to “tackle the entire disease pathway, from prevention to quality of life of cancer patients and survivors”. On 4 February 2025 the European Commission published a report reviewing the implementation of the Plan until the end of 2024. The findings, based on an extensive desk research as well as interviews, focus groups and workshops with a variety of stakeholders, including civil society organizations, indicate major accomplishments in areas such as strengthening vaccination for HPV and HBV, tackling exposure to carcinogens (includes better protection from asbestos, air pollution, endocrine disruptors and persistent chemicals), a new EU Cancer Screening Scheme, setting up an EU Network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres and the creation of the European Cancer Information System.

On rare cancers, great progress has been done on setting up European Reference Networks for Rare Diseases (ERNs). These are cross-border networks that bring together 1 613 highly specialised centres from 382 hospitals in 27 countries allowing clinicians to discuss and seek advice from colleagues on rare disease patient cases on appropriate diagnosis and treatment. Each ERN focuses on a specific disease area. Of the 24 currently working ERNs, four focus on rare cancers: EURACAN for solid tumours, EuroBloodNet for haematological diseases, GENTURIS for genetic tumour risk syndromes and PaedCan on paediatric cancers.

Yet, as stakeholders interviewed for this review indicate, the Plan should have a greater focus on rare cancers including research into the causes of these cancers. Future areas of focus for the European Commission for tackling rare cancers, either inside the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan or outside of it, could also include more actions on  preventing and screening for rare cancers or how to apply personalised medicine and AI to diagnose earlier and better treat rare cancers. Considering that almost a quarter of all cancers are rare, more focus on rare cancers can translate into improvements in the lives of a sizeable part of Europe’s cancer patients.