Officially adopted in 2021, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan aims to address challenges in prevention, treatment and care for all cancers (European Commission, 2021[1]). In support of these goals, the EU Council Recommendation on Cancer Screening includes the objective that 90% of the EU population who qualify for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening are offered services by 2025 (European Commission, 2022[2]).
Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer among women, accounting for almost 30% of new cancer cases in EU countries in 2022 (European Union, 2024[3]). Risk factors for breast cancer include age, genetic predisposition, oestrogen replacement therapy, and lifestyle factors such as obesity, physical inactivity, nutrition habits and alcohol consumption.
Beginning in the 1980s, most European countries have adopted population-based breast cancer screening programmes to improve early detection rates (OECD, 2024[4]). In 2022, the proportion of women of screening age (usually 50‑69 years of age) receiving mammography over the past two years was 57% on average across EU countries (Figure 6.5). The screening rate was below 30% in the Slovak Republic and Hungary. Denmark, Finland and Sweden have the highest screening rates at above 80%. Despite the temporary reduction in breast cancer screening rates during the first year of the pandemic in 2020, the proportion of women screened for breast cancer remained relatively stable between 2019 and 2022 on average across EU countries.
Cervical cancer can be almost fully prevented through vaccination or early detection and treatment following screening. Both interventions can greatly reduce the burden of cervical cancer on women and health systems. About three‑fourths of EU countries have implemented population-based cervical cancer screening programmes. Over the past 15 years, all EU countries also launched HPV vaccination programmes as a primary prevention of cervical cancer (OECD, 2024[4]) (see indicator “Routine vaccinations”).
The incidence of cervical cancer was 12 new cases per 100 000 women in EU countries in 2022 (European Union, 2024[3]). WHO recommends countries to strive to reach an incidence rate of less than 4 new cases of cervical cancer per 100 000 women each year, but no European country has yet achieved this target. To reach this goal, WHO recommends 90% HPV vaccination coverage among girls by age 15, 70% coverage of cervical cancer screening of women between ages 35 and 45, and improvement of the coverage of treatment including treating 90% of women with pre‑cancer.
In 2022, the proportion of women aged 20‑69 who had been screened for cervical cancer within the past three years remained low in many European countries. The EU average was 56%, a reduction from 60% in 2019 (Figure 6.6). The proportion was particularly low in 2022 in Poland (11%) and Hungary (26%). Sweden, Czechia, Ireland, Finland and Slovenia had the highest screening rates (over 70%) among those countries with data available for 2022. Unlike mammography, the average cervical cancer screening rate across EU countries in 2022 is slightly lower than the pre‑pandemic level.
Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in men (after lung cancer) and the third most common cause (after breast and lung cancers) among women in Europe (see indicator “Cancer Mortality” in Chapter 3). The main risk factors for colorectal cancer include age, long-term inflammation of colon and rectum, family history of colorectal cancer or polyps, and lifestyle factors such as a diet high in fat and low in fibre, physical inactivity, obesity, tobacco and alcohol consumption. Currently, 21 EU countries have a national or regional colorectal cancer screening programmes. These programmes typically support faecal testing for people aged 50‑74 every two years (OECD, 2024[4]). On average across EU countries, 42% of people in the target age group were screened for colorectal cancer over the past two years in 2022. It varies from a low of 14% in Portugal to a high of 77% in Finland (Figure 6.7). Colorectal cancer screening increased slightly on average across EU countries between 2019 and 2022.
