The first paper published in the Joint Action underlines Belgium’s expertise in new opportunities for cancer screening, particularly lung cancer screening. This narrative review, published by colleagues at Antwerp University Hospital, outlined the emerging best practices on integrating smoking cessation with lung cancer screening, highlighting both opportunities and challenges for future developments.

As such evidence evolves, several cancer sites, including lung, prostate and gastric cancer, are being considered for organised screening. However, introducing new screening programmes requires careful evaluation of benefits, harms, feasibility and resource requirements. Within EUCanScreen, Belgian partners Sciensano & UZA, with Sciensano as co-lead of WP8, recently published a report providing an overview of the database discussions and the current status of lung, gastric, and prostate cancer screening programmes and pilot studies across Europe (Milestone 42).  A substantial contribution was made to the White Book by inclusion of 2 chapters, with a lead author from Antwerp University Hospital and review by a collaborator from Sciensano.

It was found that lung cancer screening is the most advanced, with national programmes in Croatia and the Czech Republic and widespread pilots using low-dose CT for high-risk individuals. Gastric cancer screening has not yet been a fully implemented programme in EU countries, though pilots are testing approaches such as H. pylori screen-and-treat. PSA-based prostate cancer screening programmes exist in Lithuania, Sweden, and the Czech Republic, while other countries are piloting risk-based models. Across all three areas, efforts are focused on quality assurance, harmonized data collection, and shared KPIs to support future population-based screening programmes.