This contributed volume addresses the link between the social environment and cancer in Europe. The authors document the wide range and diverse trends in cancer incidence and patient survival in Europe, and they identify the main mechanisms and key influences that underlie these inequalities. They suggest a series of actions and programmes to tackle these inequalities in Europe, within the conceptual framework of intervention research. The influence of the social environment on the risk of suffering and dying from cancer is obviously a global phenomenon, as evidenced by a growing number of studies and books. In part, the underlying mechanisms are universal. Given the availability of a new standardised measure for social deprivation in Europe (the European Deprivation Index), the networking of population-based cancer registries across Europe as efficient surveillance tools, the increasing comparability of the organisation of care in European countries, and the recent launch of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, this extensive review of social inequalities in cancer on a European scale is both relevant and timely. The book consists of 21 chapters organised in four sections:

• Part I – General Considerations and Methodologic Aspects
• Part II – Social Disparities in Cancer Incidence and Survival – Reports
• Part III – Social Disparities in Cancer Incidence and Survival – Mechanisms
• Part IV – Towards an Evidence-Based Policy for Tackling Social Inequalities in Cancer

Social Environment and Cancer in Europe: Towards an Evidence-Based Public Health Policy is a unique resource that presents up-to-date methods for analysing quantitative data. It focusses on inequalities in cancer incidence and survival within the wider framework of inequalities in health. This book will be an essential reference for policy-makers, researchers, public health professionals, social scientists and oncologists.

Guy Launoy, MD has been a doctor of medicine since 1987 and a doctor of epidemiology and public health since 1997. He has worked as a researcher at the French Institute in Medical Research (INSERM) from 1993-2003 and as Professor in Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Caen in France since 2004. Dr. Launoy was President of the French network of cancer registries (FRANCIM) during 2008-2012. He is Director of Unit 1086 INSERM (Caen) since 2012 and President of the Canceropole of Northwest of France since 2019. He has supervised approximately twenty PhD degree candidates in public health at the University of Caen. Dr. Launoy has published 300 articles on cancer focusing on epidemiology, screening, and social and public health aspects. He is particularly interested in cancer registration at a national and European level, cancer screening organisation, and social epidemiology of cancers and its impact on public health policy. Dr. Launoy advocates for a concerted and evidence-based European policy for the measurement of social inequalities in health and for policy to tackle social inequalities in health. He serves as an expert for the European Commission and several French institutions and agencies (INSERM, HCERES, INCa, HAS, ANSES). Vesna Zadnik, MD, PhD has been a public health specialist and a doctor of science in the field of epidemiology since 2006. She is the Head of the Epidemiology and Cancer Registry Sector at the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana in Slovenia since 2018. She directs and carries out detailed epidemiological analysis using the data of the National Cancer Registry and the registries of the cervical and breast cancer screening programmes in order to elucidate a certain condition, e.g., cancer incidence, time series, spatial distribution, survival of cancer patients, etc. Among other roles, Dr. Zadnik is currently serving as European representative on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Cancer Registries and as coordinator in the field of cancer burden surveillance in the Executive Council of the Slovene National Cancer Control Plan from 2017-2021.Michel P. Coleman, MD, FFPH has been Professor of Epidemiology and Vital Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) since 1995; Head of the Cancer Survival Group at LSHTM since 2005, and Honorary Consultant in Oncology at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust since 2012. He qualified in medicine at Oxford, and practised in hospital medicine and general practice before becoming an epidemiologist. Dr. Coleman has worked at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France (1987-1991), and was Medical Director of the Thames Cancer Registry in London, UK (1991-1995). He was Head of the Cancer and Public Health Unit (LSHTM) during 1998-2003, Deputy Chief Medical Statistician at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) during 1995-2004, and Head of the WHO UK Collaborating Centre on the Classification of Diseases at ONS during 1996-2004.  Dr. Coleman has published 500 articles on cancer and public health, and has taught epidemiology in many countries. His main interests are in the application of trends in cancer incidence, mortality and survival to the public health control of cancer. He has been an advisor on cancer registration, cancer research and cancer control to governments in several countries, and to the European Union.