While the UK spent e388 million on cancer research last year, Malta spent nothing, a major study has found.

A major pan-European survey published in PLoS Medicine revealed that there is inadequate public funding of cancer research when set against the actual burden of cancer in Europe, and compared with the United States.

The European Cancer Research Funding Survey reported that the average public spending on cancer research across the EU was e2.56 per person, compared with e17.63 per person in the United States.

As a percentage of GDP, the USA paid four times more on cancer research than the average in Europe. These findings are presented in the Public Library of Science’s (PLoS) Medicine.

The survey’s authors, Seth Eckhouse of the European Cancer Research Managers Forum and Richard Sullivan of Cancer Research UK say that cancer is one of the biggest “disease burdens’ and killers in the EU and internationally. With the ageing population and the continuing impact of tobacco-associated cancers, it is predicted that cancer rates could increase by 50 per cent to 15 million new cases worldwide in 2020, note the authors.

The study identified 139 non-commercial funding organisations that collectively spent e1.43 billion on cancer research from 2002 to 2003, but with wide variations across the EU, ranging from e388 million in the UK to nothing in Malta.

Three EU countries spent more than e100 million, nine greater than e10 million, and 10 less than e1 million. Of all the countries in the survey, only Bulgaria failed to report its spending, the authors noted.