The main objectives of the conference are:
-to educate researchers and clinicians in Quality of Life and Cancer of this topic.
-to increase the dialogue between healthcare professionals in oncology clinical trials and Public Health.
-to debate innovative approaches in QOL Research across Europe.
The European dimension is essential to convey the idea of harmonization of HRQOL across Europe and help eliminate health disparities.
To maintain a patient focused dimension, the approach adopted will consider the single patient experience, including the wider statistical and oncologic perspective. Starting from the wide range of tools developed by the EORTC and collection of data from cancer clinical trials an analysis will be conducted on the most effective evaluation measure for clinical trials, new drugs, etc.
According to the 2011 WP this conference will mainly address the following key topics:
Focus on the Elderly, given the increasing number of patients requiring care in an ageing society. Taking into account the demographic change and the ageing population this will represent an increasing number of citizens with cancer and also with rare cancer types.
Promote health equality at two levels: as Gender balance in QoL, assessing gender related diseases and reducing health inequalities between member states, especially in relation to the new members and candidates that need to fit parameters and improve their health systems. ISPOR chapter policy initiative will be presented.

We propose that our international conference serves as a platform to voice the need to ensure standardization of HRQOL reporting in clinical trials. We have invited established journal editors working with key presenters and members of EORTC, UK Medical Research Council, and other EU research groups to make international consensus guidelines. Our hope being that by bringing together key journals and research groups such guidelines can lead to greater consistency of reporting of cancer clinical trials.

We recognise the need to maximise resources in the ERA, especially in the field of HRQOL. There are several academic non-profit societies today. These include the multi-national association for cancer (MASCC), and the international society for Pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research (ISPOR), International Society for Quality of Life (ISOQOL) the International Psychosocial Oncology Society (PSOG) and the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). Few of these societies focus on cancer clinical trials and the patients needs when examined via clinical trials across the EU. Hence, this is a gap that needs addressing. There is also a need to increase the dialogue, with the possible benefit to patients, via having a more coherent voice, and more strategic influence within the ERA and beyond. Another important aim of our conference will be to bring key representatives of these non-profit societies. We have contacted each society and the Presidents of ISOQOL and MASCC support our conference.


The main objective of the conference is to create a platform for a multi-professional, inter-and trans-disciplinary group of stakeholders with diverse experiences and perspectives on health inequalities in the treatment of children with major organ diseases. Prospective participants from old and new MS, candidate MS and Western Balkan countries will be actively invited if they are either actively involved into the high-end care of those severely sick children or passively afflicted by the respective inequalities. By involving highly qualified and experienced people in all areas concerned the conference holder will also be able to ensure overall coverage of matters related to structure, funding and policies.

The conference is intended
- to raise awareness about the extent and consequences of health inequalities and heighten political attention for the different life-expectancy of children with major organ disease
- to identify and spread good practices in high-end care for children with major organ disease by presenting selected best practice examples to the participants and further putting them into practice within the conference working groups
- to articulate and critically reflect existing health inequalities in the field of childhood major organ disease, to provide a list of inequalities and to prioritize them and finally to translate the most striking inequalities into a conference list for urgent actions so to help bridging these differences
- to link existing projects and groups to support and facilitate both local high-end care for children with major organ disease and the access to cross-border health-care, by implementation of a partnering system at the conference
- to foster task forces for future specific European interdisciplinary network projects tackling inequalities in health

To facilitate dialogue within a group of stakeholders with diverse professional and cultural background the conference is designed following the basic model of the "Future Search Method". The conference itself, by providing a multi-professional, inter-and trans-disciplinary platform, is intended as a start for subsequent projects, all of them with the objective to reduce health inequalities in the treatment of children with major organ diseases in new MS, candidate MS and Western Balkan countries.



The objective of the conference is to present concrete initiatives related to prevention and organisation of healthcare systems, in order to stimulate innovative approaches at European level for chronic illness. The output of the conference is to bring conclusions on chronic diseases to the EPSCO Council.
� Prevention: Develop a program of prevention with all sectors concerned (Health in all policies): While there is a large consensus on the fact that most chronic diseases are preventable through interventions against the major risk factors, environmental and societal influences on these risk factors at the population level have received less attention although they play an important role to understand chronic diseases. For example, urban design may permit access to environments that can be either an encouragement or a barrier to physical activity and active living. The development of such strategies requires a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on diverse paradigms, many of which are outside the domain of Health.
� Healthcare system organisation: In order to respond to the challenges posed by chronic diseases on healthcare systems, several countries have experimented with new models of healthcare delivery that can achieve better coordination of services across the continuum of care. Although each system must find its own solution, the objective of the conference concerning the healthcare systems is to focus on their necessity to be adapted to the needs of patients living with long-term and complex chronic conditions, including those living with multiple chronic conditions



To initiate a collaboration on the development and use of IIS (Immunisation Information System) by:
1) Describing uses of IIS, from the perspective of vaccinees, health care providers, e health program developers, public health agencies, regulatory agencies, academic institutions and vaccine manufactures, including use in management of health programs and research
2) Describing the status of IIS in EC
3) Identifying areas were collaboration would be beneficial
4) Proposing objectives and forms for future collaboration
5) Developing a strategy for implementation
6) Forming a network for developing proposals for projects




The Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL) is an NGO leading on cancer control actions at the European level since 1980. Represented by members in the EU and non-EU countries at the national level, leagues are often the main resource for the public for cancer control information and services. The running of ECL is financed by fees from its members, which cover a skeleton staff and office expenses. ECL finds it increasingly difficult to run the office on only membership fees, rates which have not changed for 10 years, but due to times of austerity, ECL is unable to justify increasing the fees. Therefore, ECL is applying for this Operating Grant to increase its resources in order to be able to implement actions efficiently in line with its renewed strategy 2014-2017, in particular in its implementation of work for Strategic Goal 2: Promote Cancer Prevention. Cancer prevention actions, including communication campaigns for the public, remain a top priority for ECL and its member leagues, where we have been instrumental in communicating and interpreting for the public the past decade the 3rd Revision of the European Code Against Cancer. With great experience at the national and EU levels, and with proven trust of the public in the Member States, ECL and its member leagues are therefore a natural partner in communicating and disseminating the new (4th) revision of the Code. An EU Grant would be shared with the national leagues to further the other strategic goals: encouraging access to cancer screening; ensuring access to treatment and support; supporting national cancer control programmes and cancer registries; and influencing cancer control policies. More resources would also allow ECL to optimally utilize its network of partners at the European and global level, which include international organisations, the European Parliament, national departments of health etc. to support cancer control in line with priorities of the EU.
