A new editorial highlighting the results of a major mapping exercise of research outputs from the EU has just been published in ecancer. Entitled "European Cancer Research: from bench to bedside and to breakfast table", it is written by Mursheda Begum, Elena Pallari and Grant Lewison all of King’s College, London.

The Editorial describes how the authors examined papers covering 5 non-communicable diseases; cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke, diabetes, mental disorders and respiratory diseases and their funding sources and impacts (academic citations, references on European clinical guidelines and newspapers).

The mapping exercise pointed to correlations between outputs for a country against their wealth, noting anomalies, and identifies relatively neglected research areas as well as those which receive an undue amount of attention.

It also discusses the role that newspapers play in influencing cancer policies, though highlights that many cancer stories do not cite research articles.

The authors say, "One finding was the relatively low output of stories on surgery and radiotherapy, so that the public and politicians will come to believe that the “war on cancer” depends primary on new and expensive drugs from big pharma, with a distorting effect on health spending."

It is hoped that this real world data analysis will help shape the future direction of cancer research and help spread best practice in cancer research, across Europe.

Read the editorial in full here.