1. EUROCHIP - EUROpean Cancer Health Indicators Project A fight against disequalities in managing cancer HMP HMP: Health Monitoring Programme Andrea Micheli 1, Paolo Baili 1, Carmen Martinez 2, Riccardo Capocaccia 3, Jan Willem Coebergh 4, Arduino Verdecchia 3, Franco Berrino 1, Eugenio Mugno 1, Camilla Amati 1, Michel Coleman 5 1 Unit of Epidemiology – Istituto Nazionale per la Cura e lo Studio dei Tumori – Milan (I) – 2 Granada Cancer Registry – Escuela Andaluza de Salud Publica – Granada (E), 3 Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biostatistics – Istituto Superiore di Sanità – Rome (I), 4 Comprehnsive Cancer Centre South Eindhoven Cancer Registry – Eindhoven (NL), 5 Cancer and Public Health Unit – London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine – London (UK) www.istitutotumori.mi.it/project/eurochip/homepage.htm THE PROJECT Produce a list of health indicators describing cancer in Europe in order for: a) helping the development of European Health Information System b) reducing inequalities in cancer control c) promoting action in the fight against cancer 130 INTELLECTUAL WORK INVOLVING 130 CANCER SPECIALISTS OF EU MEMBERS, CANCER NETWORKS, INSTITUTES AND ORGANISATIONS METHODS EUROCHIP AIMS BACKGROUND TERTILES: I: Estonia, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Spain; II: UK, Finland, Netherland, Sweden, Italy, and Austria; III: Iceland, Denmark, France, Germany, and Switzerland CANCER SITES TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THE LIST 1)All cancers combined without non melanoma skin cancers 2)Cancers of: lung, breast, colorectal, prostate, stomach,head and neck, larynx, oropharynx, melanoma, kaposi, mesothelioma, testis, haematopoietic malignancies, childhood tumors, cervix Each indicator was discussed by groups of experts of different expertise in prevention, cancer registration, screening, treatment and health economy, who described it by its general presentation, operational definition, meaning, possible use, caveat, modalities of classification, possible source, standardisation and validity. EUROCHIP provided a list of cancer malignancies taken as proxy of different phases of cancer surveillance : LIST OF INDICATORS AND THEIR AVAILABILITY: COMPARISON BETWEEN EUROPE AND US CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE EUROCHIP achieved to produce a list of indicators and to gather guidelines and for the European health information system on cancer. Final goal of EUROCHIP was to find information able to describe differences and also to promote action that would reduce inequalities in managing cancer. This last is the core of the ongoing EUROCHIP-2 project. It will be really useful to compare European data with American ones. Today this is possible for some European countries and for traditional epidemiological measures, but it is important to highlight that many indicators proposed by EUROCHIP are already available in US. To reduce inequalities across Europe, some countries have to prioritise action on prevention, others on care, others on surveillance. However, it is vital for each countries’ success in the fight against cancer, that the trans-national European nature of the study is maintained at all levels of data collection, data analysis, problem evaluation, and action. EUROCHIP-2 will add value to each countries actions by stimulating data comparison (also with US data) and providing a unified International/European imprimatur to cancer action. EUROCHIP-2 will try to:  SET UP DATA COLLECTION  ANALYSE THE BEHAVIOUR OF VARIOUS INDICATORS IN RELATION TO THEIR UTILITY  IDENTIFY DEFICIENCIES IN EUROPEAN HEALTH SYSTEMS  ENCOURAGE ACTIONS TO REDUCE INADEQUANCIES IN CANCER CONTROL A: Availability for large part of Europe; B: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, NIH, National Cancer Institute. CANCER PROGRESS REPORT 2001; C: Surveillance Research Program, National Cancer Institute. SEER*Stat software Version 5.0.17 (www.seer.cancer.gov/seerstat) *: From OECD Health Data 2002