Second EU-GAINS–EC-GaC Working Group meeting takes place at IARC

A panel of international experts finalized the prioritization of health-care questions and people-important outcomes to be addressed in the new guidelines for the primary prevention of gastric cancer in Europe, during the second meeting of the EU-GAINS – European Commission Initiative on Gastric Cancer (EC-GaC) Working Group, coordinated by scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The meeting took place at IARC on 22–24 April 2026.

The goals of this initiative are to advance the development of evidence-based guidelines for the primary prevention of gastric cancer in Europe and to complete preparatory work towards a European quality assurance scheme for gastric cancer care services implementing screening and treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection.

The Working Group and IARC collaboratively defined the scope of the systematic evidence synthesis, providing the basis for developing clear and evidence-based recommendations for health-care users, providers, and policy-makers. In addition, the Working Group formulated care pathway scenarios for H. pylori screen-and-treat programmes, quality indicators, and performance measures for the development of a future quality assurance scheme for European gastric cancer prevention.

The Working Group focused on developing H. pylori screen-and-treat guidelines using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach and structuring actionable questions according to the Population, Intervention, Comparator, and Outcomes (PICO) framework.

Gastric cancer is the fifth most commonly occurring cancer globally, and most cases are attributable to H. pylori infection, underscoring the need for international primary prevention guidelines. This initiative aims to produce the first-ever evidence-based European guidelines for population-based H. pylori screen-and-treat programmes, with the goal of reducing the burden of gastric cancer across Europe.

For more information about H. pylori screen-and-treat strategies for gastric cancer prevention, see the summary of the IARC Working Group Report

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Read about the first meeting of the EU-GAINS–EC-GaC Working Group

Read about the European Commission Initiative on Gastric Cancer (EC-GaC)

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