General aims

The proposal involves the design of a model able to identify areas with higher cancer rates, so to study whether pollutant contamination may be a cause for increased cancer risk. Hence it aims to improve the health of EU citizens and reduce health inequalities. During the course of the action, the model will be validated with breast cancer and water/soil pollutants data, in order to organize dissemination/prevention activities targeted to adolescents and young women. Inherent to the process, the action foresees the creation of two European taskforces working on the definition, standardization and dissemination of innovative statistical methodologies, i.e. to map cancer risk variation and to develop the cancer-risk-related social deprivation indicators. The work of these two taskforces will remain available for all EU MS interested in working in these areas, to the advantage of the following three public health domains:

• Cancer information system: one of the aims of the action is to improve the European population-based cancer information system by promoting models for the use of Cancer Registry (CR) data. The study of cancer risk using geographical spatial analysis is one of the major public health topics for European CRs. Thanks to this, public health managers are enabled to prioritize actions where these are most needed
• Research for public health: the action contributes towards public health knowledge by providing spatial analysis on cancer risk, deprivation indexes estimates, literature reviews and correlation analysis between environmental pollutant and cancer incidence
• Cancer Prevention: online courses are promoted and organized to increase awareness of breast cancer risk among adolescents and young women