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Building National Cancer Data Nodes: the New EU Project CANDLE Starts its Work
During their lifetime, approximately half of all people in the Netherlands are diagnosed with cancer (according to IKNL). This makes researching new methods of preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer of the utmost importance to increase healthcare for millions of patients. To do good research, access to quality data is needed.
To create the infrastructure to be able to re-use all oncology data Health-RI has set up a national and international cancer node, that connects all organisations that hold and manage oncology data. By coming together and agreeing on common rules we can make oncology data findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable for researchers.
Health-RI is active in connecting organisations both within the Netherlands on a national level, through the Dutch Oncology node, and on an international level. An important example of our work in connecting international partners is through the EU-funded CANDLE project.
Candle project Kicks off
CANDLE – National CAncer data Node DeveLopErs – officially kicked off on 1 June 2025, launching its three-year mission to build a robust cancer research infrastructure across EU Member States.
Health-RI will take on a coordinating role within this project and will work together with a consortium of 40 partners from 20 European countries. Over the course of its three-year mission, CANDLE will support Member States in setting up National Cancer Data Nodes – like the one Health-RI is coordinating in the Netherlands. These Nodes will manage and share cancer data nationally and across borders, connecting different national actors.
The National Cancer Data Nodes implemented in CANDLE will closely link to other European cancer data initiatives:
- the UNCAN.eu platform, a federated cancer data infrastructure being developed under the upcoming EU project UNCAN-CONNECT, and
- the European Cancer Patient Digital Centre (ECPDC). The figure below displays the project structure:
Driving Integration Across Europe
CANDLE will play a strategic role in supporting the European Health Data Space (EHDS) by establishing a federated network of national nodes in the cancer domain. These nodes can be seen as demonstrators for national disease-specific implementation of the EHDS, aligning EU-wide health data policies with regional and national requirements. Furthermore, CANDLE puts into practice the EU Mission on Cancer and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan by supporting their implementation on national level and fostering dialogue with other major initiatives.
The CANDLE Consortium includes partners from Member State governance bodies, cancer care, patients and public health, as well as six major European Research Infrastructures. Thus, the consortium is well-suited to ensure the adoption of best practices in data sharing, enhance maturity in data access, and foster cross-domain collaboration.
Gerrit Meijer - Chief Scientific Officer Health-RI & CANDLE project coordinatorThe National Cancer Data Nodes initiated by the EU cancer mission provide a great opportunity to get the most out of the implementation of the EHDS for cancer research. With the CANDLE project we aim to pave the way for the implementation of these National Cancer Data Nodes, to ultimately maximize their impact for society.