Information for action: Building a unified European Cancer Information System to bolster cancer control

Relevant information on cancer is available, but its organisation and harmonisation is necessary to make it usable for health planners, doctors, patients and other stakeholders. - Cancer registries should be at the core of a European Cancer Information System (ECIS), providing basic cancer indicators on incidence, survival, prevalence and patterns of care but these data need to be systematically linked to clinical, socioeconomic and population data. - The first step towards an ECIS, the harmonisation of incidence and survival data, has been taken during EPAAC in order to update European cancer data and construct a common database computing incidence, survival and prevalence data. - Specific conditions for data use still need to be considered, regulating confidentiality and ownership.