Cancer

On January 30, 2026, the Federal Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection (BMASGPK) and Gesundheit Österreich GmbH (GÖG) jointly presented the National Cancer Framework Program 2026-2035. It serves as a strategic compass, setting the direction for cancer control and care in Austria over the next ten years, although it is not legally binding. The Program comprises four areas of action, 22 objectives, and 113 measures.

On February 4, 2026, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England published the National Cancer Plan for England, setting out a decade-long, technology-enabled transformation of cancer services, with substantial commitments to diagnostics, AI, genomics, robotic surgery, digital tools, and innovation-driven care pathways. The key ambition is that, by 2035, three out of four people diagnosed with cancer will be cancer-free, or living well with cancer after five years.

In January 2026, nine new topics were added to the Implementation Agenda of the Care Evaluation and Appropriate Use (ZE&GG) program, requiring healthcare providers to implement these evidence-based practices in daily care and to demonstrate results within two years. The topics concerned the in-vitro diagnostic, gastrointestinal, and ENT fields. Additionally, 16 topics were removed from the agenda, as most had been sufficiently implemented and others were no longer relevant.

On February 9, 2026, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) announced the launch of the new National Healthtech Access Programme (NHAP). The NHAP will expand NICE’s Technology Appraisals programme to include health technologies beyond medicines (medical devices, diagnostics, and digital tools), allowing mandatory reimbursement of recommended technologies. The first two NHAP topics are capsule sponge tests for detecting oesophageal cancer and AI tools for identifying prostate and breast cancer.

In January 2026, the Dutch Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) awarded fourteen projects under the “Implementation round 3” of the Efficiency Research program, including the MedTech projects in e-health, gastrointestinal, oncology, neurosurgery, IVD, and cardiovascular fields.

On December 3, 2025, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health published updates to the Healthcare Benefit Ordinance (KLV/OPre), which determines coverage of medical services in Switzerland. The changes will take effect on January 1, 2026, and relate to prophylactic vaccinations, cost containment measures, and other matters. The updates are also implemented in KLV Annexes, including the List of explicitly evaluated services (Annex 1), the outpatient-before-inpatient mandate (Annex 1a), the List of Medical Aids (Annex 2, MiGeL), and the List of Analyses (Annex 3, AL).

In November 2025, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published one new Interventional Procedures Guidance on low-energy contact X-ray brachytherapy for rectal cancer with different recommendations depending on clinical indications. Furthermore, three new clinical guidelines were released.

On November 17, 2025, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) launched a consultation on the 2025 evidence map relating to population screening for bladder cancer, which is not currently recommended in the UK. The evidence review found no substantial new evidence to change existing recommendations or commissioning further evidence synthesis work. The topic should be reconsidered by the UK NSC in three years. Organizations and the public are invited to submit comments until February 9, 2026.

Since March 2025, the Dutch Healthcare Institute (ZIN) has been establishing new standards for vascular surgery and cancer treatment, resulting in the centralization of complex interventions only in hospitals that consistently demonstrate a high volume of such procedures. In November 2025, the seven regions agreed on which hospitals would provide complex cancer and vascular procedures starting in 2026, with a one-year transition period before the new care distribution began on January 1, 2027.

On October 21, 2025, the French National Authority for Health (HAS) issued positive opinions on the inclusion of targeted next-generation sequencing-based panels for patients with multiple myeloma and lung cancer in the NABM Nomenclature for regular reimbursement. Currently, these tests are temporarily reimbursed within the innovative payment scheme (RIHN). These HAS assessments are performed as a part of the RIHN reform and ‘cleaning up’ the List of temporarily covered tests.

On November 5, 2025, the Swiss Federal Council approved a set of adjustments and additions to the new comprehensive outpatient tariff system, which comprises TARDOC and the outpatient flat rates. The implementation of changes before the system's launch on January 1, 2026, was requested by the tariff partners in July 2025. The adjustments primarily affect emergency services, oncology, wound care, and pathology.

In October 2025, the Swedish Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency (TLV) launched two new thematic horizon scans focusing on cancer care. The scans aim to identify innovative medical technologies that may be evaluated within the national Orderly introduction framework for medical technologies. Stakeholders, including industry representatives, are invited to submit proposals by November 30, 2025.