Cancer care efficiency in Greece remains one of the most complex and pressing challenges for the Greek health system — not only in terms of its clinical burden, but also in how care is organized around the patient.
With approximately 63,000 new cancer cases diagnosed annually and more than 32,000 cancer-related deaths each year, Greece faces a steadily increasing oncological burden. Projections suggest that cancer incidence will rise by around 23% by 2040, further intensifying pressure on health services.
Against this backdrop, All.Can Greece has published a landmark report titled “Mapping the Efficiency of Cancer Care in Greece”, based on the pilot implementation of the All.Can Action Guide for Efficient Cancer Care.
Rather than simply describing the current situation, the report aims to measure it — identifying where efficiency is lost across the cancer care pathway and where targeted reforms could make the greatest impact.
Cancer care efficiency in Greece: delays in care delivery
One of the most critical findings of the report relates to delays in the patient journey.
Despite the existence of modern infrastructure and highly specialized oncology centres, significant delays persist between initial suspicion, diagnosis, and the start of treatment.
These delays are not the result of a single bottleneck, but of systemic fragmentation:
- fragmented referral pathways,
- limited coordination between levels of care,
- and the absence of standardized clinical protocols.
A key structural weakness is the lack of systematic monitoring of waiting times and time-to-treatment indicators. As a result, inefficiencies remain partially invisible to the system itself, limiting the ability to implement targeted improvements.
Fragmentation across the care continuum
The report highlights a broader issue of fragmentation in cancer care delivery.
The patient journey from primary care to specialist oncology services is often not clearly structured or consistently coordinated. Referral pathways depend heavily on individual practice rather than standardized national protocols.
A major gap is the absence of structured patient navigation services. In practice, this means that patients and families are often left to navigate a complex system on their own, increasing delays and adding unnecessary psychological burden.
At the same time, multidisciplinary tumor boards represent a positive development, supporting collaborative clinical decision-making across specialties. However, systematic monitoring of their performance remains limited.
The development of Comprehensive Cancer Centers is identified as a promising step forward, although further regulatory strengthening and clearer governance structures are still needed to maximize their impact.
Patient-centered care: progress with remaining gaps
Greece has made notable progress in collecting Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs), reflecting a growing commitment to integrating patient perspectives into care delivery.
However, patients’ access to their own clinical data remains limited, restricting their ability to actively participate in decision-making processes.
In addition, patient education and shared decision-making are not yet systematically embedded across the health system.
Another important gap concerns survivorship care. As cancer survival rates improve, the lack of structured long-term follow-up pathways leaves many patients without continuous support after active treatment ends.
Key policy directions
The report outlines several strategic priorities for improving cancer care efficiency in Greece:
- Development of a comprehensive national cancer strategy with clear targets and governance mechanisms
- Strengthening coordination across all levels of care
- Implementation of standardized clinical pathways with defined time-to-treatment and quality indicators
- Investment in oncology workforce capacity, particularly in shortage specialties
- Establishment of structured patient navigation programmes
- Acceleration of Comprehensive Cancer Center development
- Systematic use of health data for monitoring performance and accountability
- Greater patient engagement through PROMs, PREMs, and shared decision-making
Conclusion: a system with strong foundations but limited integration
Greece has many of the essential building blocks for a high-performing cancer care system — including infrastructure, clinical expertise, and emerging digital health capabilities.
However, the key challenge lies not in the existence of these components, but in their integration.
The All.Can Greece report highlights a system that is still operating in silos: strong individual elements that do not yet function as a fully connected care pathway.
In oncology, this lack of integration is not merely an organizational issue. It directly affects timeliness, patient experience, and ultimately outcomes.
The opportunity now lies in moving from fragmented capacity to coordinated care — where patients no longer have to bridge the gaps between system components themselves.
Source: Mapping-the-Efficiency-of-Cancer-Care-in-Greece-FINAL
Text/adaptation: Ifiyenia Anastasiou for Kapa3
