On 31 January 2024, the Europe's Beating Cancer Plan conference took place in Brussels. During the event, the main commitments and actions of the Plan were recalled by Commissioner Kyriakides.

The Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan is one of the funding pillars of the European Health Union and represents the Union’s devotion to improve cancer prevention, treatment, and care. It includes 10 flagship initiatives and 32 supporting actions focusing on four key action areas, among which “quality of life of cancer patients and survivors”.

In particular, the Plan recognises the challenges that cancer survivors may experience, citing, for examples, unmet psychosocial needs, issues related to rehabilitation and emotional distress, and underlines the importance of focusing on “how well” they live. Moreover, the Plan mentions the potential that new technologies and digitalisation can bring to research and innovation.

The above shows the ongoing commitment of the European Union towards improving the QoL of cancer survivors exploiting, among others, the potential of the new technologies. At the same time, it also demonstrates the alignment of the BD4QoL project with the priorities at EU level.

Indeed, improving the QoL of cancer survivors and exploiting the potential of the new technologies are two themes at the core of BD4QoL, whose aim is to enhance the QoL of patients who have successfully completed a treatment pathway for head and neck cancer by fostering the adoption of Artificial Intelligence-assisted mobile applications specifically focused on Head and Neck Cancer.