Cancer’s “Right to be forgotten”: Comparison of medico-legal parameters in 8 EU countries

Abstract

Background

Cancer’s ‘Right to be forgotten’ is a form of protection that several EU countries are beginning to recognise for citizens, aimed at ensuring the correspondence between the clinical recovery of a cancer patient and equal access to financial services, banking, insurance and child adoption procedures. The first EU country to enact an oncology oblivion law was France in 2016. Subsequently, other EU countries enacted specific laws on oncological forgetting. The EU Parliament intervened on the topic in 2022, which passed Resolution No. 2020/2267 (INI) calling on all member countries to amend national legislation by 2025. With this resolution, the EU Parliament asked member states to guarantee the right to be forgotten to all patients after 10 years after the end of cancer treatment and after 5 years for patients under 18 years of age.

Methodology

The aim of this paper is to compare the regulations of 8 EU countries (France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Romania and Italy) and the different medico-legal parameters adopted.

Results/Discussion

The study demonstrated a heterogeneity of tumour-specific medico-legal parameters in the analysed countries. The reason for this heterogeneity could be influenced by a different prevalence and incidence of the tumour forms in the tables and by a different health, insurance and banking organisation, as well as by a different sensitivity of the political decision-maker to the demands of citizens and stakeholders.

Conclusion

A common European reflection between scientific professionals, stakeholders, legislators and patients' representatives is desirable and could lead to a homogeneity of tumour-specific cut-offs between EU countries. Furthermore, the table should be updated periodically by a commission of specialists responsible for comparing states; other possible tumour forms should be considered (e.g. adrenal gland cancer, gallbladder cancer, etc.) and it should be possible to integrate the tabular data with a possible case-specific evaluation upon request of the patient.