The Europe’s beating cancer plan (EBCP) is set out to tackle the entire disease pathway of cancer -from prevention to quality of life of cancer patients and survivors - with the aim to improve prevention, early detection, access to diagnosis and treatment.

The CAN.HEAL consortium will address two of the EBCP’s initiatives: ‘Cancer Diagnostic and Treatment for All’ and ‘Genomics for Public Health’. Genomics has become increasingly relevant in cancer medicine. Next-generation sequencing technologies and analytical approaches are now being introduced into the clinic with a multitude of clinical applications, ranging from identifying individual targetable genetic alterations to monitoring treatment response.  Within the Can.Heal consortium organisations from 17 EU countries will jointly build on ongoing study to promote the application of genomics to improve diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients as well as to improve our understanding of the individual susceptibility to develop a certain type of cancer. Ethical and legal issues will be addressed and efforts will be done for training and education to raise awareness for the importance of genomics in health professionals, patients and the public.   

The final goal of the project is to establish recommendations for initiatives into the EU health system that will further improve the access of individuals and patients to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through personalised medicine.