Major efforts needed against the big four killers

The cancer burden remains extremely high across Europe, says Cancer Research UK.

Four types of cancer are responsible for half of all cancer deaths, and all efforts to tackle these are to be encouraged.

However, for the sake of health equality it is important that we do not ignore the types of cancer that cause the other 50% of cancer deaths.

Prostate cancer is an important example, having become the most common form of cancer diagnosed in men in the European Union.

Smoking remains a major public health problem, not only for cancer but for illnesses such as heart disease.

It is deeply worrying that so many girls and young women across Europe continue to take up smoking.

De-glamorising tobacco and making enclosed public places smoke-free will help curb this trend.

Efforts of the tobacco industry to target marketing at young women and to exploit new 'soft' markets in central and eastern Europe must be strongly opposed.

We stand to gain a great deal by coordinating cancer research efforts.

The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) has 19 UK member organisations and is currently chaired by Cancer Research UK.

It has forged links with groups in the United States to form the International Cancer Research Partnership.

We intend to extend these relations to include European partners, with the goal of developing wider global strategies for cancer research.

The National Prevention Research Initiative, recently brought together by the NCRI, is providing a £12 million boost to research into the prevention of diseases as diverse as cancer, diabete s and heart disease.

Coordinating various research efforts will hopefully yield results applicable to preventing several diseases.

Cancer Research UK fully recognises that screening reduces mortality from certain major cancer killers.

We are a major player in the evaluation of established national screening programmes and development of possible new ones, including one for bowel cancer, through ongoing research.