Cancer is a top health priority for the European Union, as every year, 3.5 million people in the EU are diagnosed with cancer, and 1.3 million die from it. The European Commission has taken critical action in regards to cancer. Europe’s recently published Beating Cancer Plan highlights the need to improve the lives of cancer patients during their treatment, all the while following a holistic approach.

The plan however, does not take into account the need to reconsider the approach to improvement of cancer patients’ lives. In this regard, integrative oncology is a key therapeutic solution that aims to improve the care of cancer patients and survivors by bringing the best of conventional treatments and the best of complementary therapies to the patient in a coordinated and personalised treatment plan.
 
The suffering caused by cancer on patients all over Europe calls for protecting their access to all the therapeutic solutions that might help. This includes complementary medicines, in the framework of integrative oncology, as well as support treatments therapies involving it, which numerous scientific
studies indicated the benefits of on the quality of life, symptom resilience and general capacity of survival of cancer patients.