EU Health Commissioner calls for ‘equal treatment’ of cancer sufferers across bloc

The EU’s Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakidou, called for equal treatment for cancer sufferers across the bloc on Thursday.

Speaking in Paphos to the Pancyprian Association of Cancer Patients and Friends, she said that “Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan” aims, among other things, to understand “what exists in every country and how the European Commission can offer help so that all sufferers regardless of the country in which they live will have the exact same and equal treatment”.

She said that a total of €5 billion had been allocated to the plan, with diagnostic services as well as treatment targeted for continent-wide improvement.

Kyriakidou used her visit to Paphos to talk about the area’s specific circumstances regarding cancer treatment, saying that Paphos is “far away” from Cyprus’s oncological centres and as a result treats its patients in a different way.

She also visited the Mammogram centre in Geroskipou while in Paphos, describing it as a “role model” for others, and took the opportunity to encourage those who receive a call-up from the ministry of health for a mammogram, to take the time to do so as early diagnosis saves lives.