Inequalities: Disparities and Discrimination in Cancer Care

Hein Van Poppel is the Chairman of the Department of Urology at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven. He graduated in General Surgery in 1980, in Urology in 1983 and joined the Academic Unit at KU Leuven after his postgraduate training in London, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Mainz and Rotterdam. In 1988, he obtained a PhD in Medical Sciences. He became a Fellow of the European Board of Urology in 1992 and a full Professor of Urology in 1993. Professor Van Poppel is a Board Member of the European Association of Urology (EAU), the European Society of Surgical Oncology and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, where he is also Study Coordinator and Treasurer of the Genito-Urinary Group. He is Chairman of the Educational Office of the EAU and Director of the European School of Urology. He is also a member of the American Association of Genito-Urinary Surgeons, President of the Belgian Society of Urology, Chairman of the Scientific Committee of Europa Uomo, and Faculty Member of the European Society of Medical Oncology. Professor Van Poppel has published more than 200 papers as first author and has co-authored more than 250 additional publications on urologic oncology. He is reviewer for all major urological journals.

Kateřina Konečná. Member of the Special Committee for Beating Cancer, European Parliament. In the year 2009, she successfully graduated from Masaryk University and received an engineer’s degree in the Public Administration field. She also has a bachelor’s degree from Masaryk University, Faculty of Law. Her interest in the world surrounding us brought her to politics and resulted in her candidacy to the Chamber of Deputies in 2002. As the youngest member of the Chamber of Deputies, she became a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. A number of draft legislations and questions to the government that she submitted came from citizens’ initiatives. Furthermore, she cooperates very closely with the Trade Union Association of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia and in 2007 she has started to work very intensively with young people. She became a member of the Environment Committee after the elections to the Chamber of Deputies in 2006. She has seen the urgent need to come up with laws that improve the environment in the Moravian-Silesian region, which has long suffered especially from poor air quality. She became a shadow minister for the environment in the Communist Party. She led the list of Communist candidates for elections in May 2010. After her re-election, she continued the promotion of practical and effective protection of the environment that will help people and will not take their jobs. The Environmental Protection Policy brought her to solving problems with Šumava National Park and also with the Waste Act. She also led the list of Communist candidates in the elections to the European Parliament in May 2014 and May 2019. As a member of the European Parliament, she continues to engage in the Environmental Protection Policy as a member of the ENVI Committee. She is also focused on the topic of Access to Healthcare and she is dealing with public health issues and cooperates very closely with patients and their organizations. She also supports the development of the Patients academy project in the Czech Republic. During her mandate, she worked on the HTA regulation or Medical devices and In-vitro medical devices regulations. In the term 2014-2019, she was the European Parliament’s contact person responsible for the ECDC agency and vice-chair of the PEST special committee. From September 2020 she is also a member of the BECA special committee.

Dr Nicolò Matteo Luca Battisti is a medical oncologist working in the Breast Unit of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK. He obtained his medical degree at the University of Milan, Italy in 2009 and he completed his specialist training at the University of Milan, Italy in 2015. He is now working on a research degree (MD[Res]) within the Breast Cancer Research Division of the Institute of Cancer Research of London, UK focusing on different aspects of the care of common malignancies in older adults under the supervision of Dr Alistair Ring and Professor Stephen Johnston. He spent the last year of his specialist training working with Dr Martine Extermann at the Senior Adult Oncology Program of the Moffitt Cancer Center of Tampa, Florida, USA. In 2016, Dr Battisti joined the Breast Unit of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, where he currently works with Dr Alistair Ring and Professor Stephen Johnston. Dr Battisti’s main clinical and research interests are breast oncology, thoracic oncology and geriatric oncology. His main areas of investigation are comorbidities, comprehensive geriatric assessment, quality of life and prediction of anticancer treatment toxicity in older patients with cancer. He authored several publications in the fields of geriatric, breast and thoracic oncology. He is President-Elect of the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). He also serves as Co-Chair of the European Cancer Organisation Inequalities Focused Topic Network. He is a member of the Elderly Task Force of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and member of the Cancer and Aging Research Group (CARG) Advocacy Committee. Dr Battisti was presented the Arti Hurria Award at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium for his research on the use of chemotherapy in older patients with early breast cancer.

Richard Sullivan is Editor-in-chief, Journal of Cancer Policy Director, Institute of Cancer Policy, King's College London & Professor of Cancer and Global Health at King’s College London, and Director of the King’s Institute of Cancer Policy and co-Director of the Conflict and Health Research Group (kcl.ac.uk/research/conflict-health-research-group). His research interests extend from global cancer to conflict & health. Richard has worked on a number of Lancet and Lancet Oncology commissions, currently the Lancet Commission on Global Diagnostics (diagnosticscommission.org) and the Lancet Oncology European Cancer Research Commission. Richard’s research teams have major programs in capacity building in conflict and health, and humanitarian medicine, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa (r4hc-mena.org), as well as programmes in women’s health and cancer, digital innovation (virtual-reality enhanced surgery) and a wide range of global health security projects including on the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening health systems in NW and NE Syria. His global cancer research programs cover cancer systems strengthening, affordability, value particularly and political economy, global radiotherapy, social welfare and cancer care in conflict. Professor Sullivan qualified in medicine and trained in surgery (urology) gaining his PhD in Biochemistry from University College London. Richard was Clinical Director of Cancer Research UK between 1999 and 2008. He has also worked for many years on biosecurity and counterproliferation issues, including Ebola outbreaks in West Africa and DR Congo. Richard is an NCD advisor to the WHO, a member of the National Cancer Grid of India and advisor (civil-military) to Save the Children.

Robert Greene is Member, European Cancer Organisation's Patient Advisory Committee, he is a consultant, speaker and patient advocate, supporting the development of patient relations. His interest revolves around patient empowerment, diversity, personalised healthcare, cancer-related malnutrition and health and healthcare disparities in prostate cancer. He is Board Member of the European Cancer Patient Coalition and Founder & President of the HungerNdThirst Foundation