Brussels, September 2026 – The ON-COME project has launched a major European survey to better understand how psychosocial and supportive care is organised and delivered for children, adolescents and young adults with cancer and their families. The survey represents a key milestone in the project’s first year and will provide essential evidence for the activities planned during its second and third years.
While survival rates in paediatric oncology have improved considerably, children and families can experience significant emotional, psychological, cognitive and social challenges throughout the cancer journey. Access to appropriate psychosocial, neuropsychological and other supportive services also varies across Europe. ON-COME aims to better understand these differences and contribute to a more consistent and integrated approach to supportive care.
The survey goes beyond simply asking whether a service exists. It seeks to build a structured and comparable picture of how psychosocial support is organised across different European healthcare systems: which services are available, who provides them, where they fit within the care pathway, how different organisations work together, and how easily children and families can access them.
Importantly, availability does not necessarily mean accessibility. A service may exist within a healthcare system but remain difficult to reach, or families may not be aware that it is available. The survey therefore also looks at how support is communicated and accessed, including the contribution of organisations working outside traditional hospital structures.
The survey has been developed collaboratively by ON-COME partners, with methodological input and alignment through collaboration with the IMPACT-EU consortium. It is designed to capture perspectives from different parts of the supportive care landscape and is available in several languages to facilitate participation across Europe.
Responses are welcomed from clinical centres providing care to children, adolescents and young adults with cancer; healthcare professionals involved in supportive care, including physicians, psychologists and nurses; and patient and parent organisations providing support outside the hospital setting.
This broad approach is important because supportive care extends beyond the hospital. Patient and parent organisations can provide information, psychological support, guidance and other forms of assistance that may not be captured through conventional healthcare data. Bringing these different perspectives together will help create a more complete picture of how supportive care is experienced and delivered.
The information collected through the survey will form the basis for important next steps within ON-COME. The results will contribute to the Existing Services Mapping Report and subsequent gap analysis, helping identify differences in provision, areas of unmet need and examples of good practice across Europe.
The evidence will also inform the development of the ON-COME Standardised Blueprint for psycho-oncological services. By combining an understanding of what exists today with evidence on where gaps remain, the project aims to develop a more structured and shared approach to supportive care. The findings will also contribute to the development of digital tools, professional training and clinical piloting activities planned for the following stages of the project.
Collaboration with IMPACT-EU will further expand the geographical scope of the mapping. While the initial ON-COME mapping covers 20 countries, continued data collection through the collaboration is expected to ultimately contribute to a picture spanning 44 countries, providing a broader understanding of psychosocial care across Europe.
For ON-COME, the survey is therefore not an end in itself. It is the starting point for understanding where European health systems currently stand and what needs to change. The evidence generated will help guide the development of practical tools, services and models that can support children and families throughout the cancer journey.
Every response can contribute to making currently invisible differences, gaps and good practices more visible at European level. A response from a clinical centre can provide insight into how services are organised; healthcare professionals can describe how support is delivered in practice; and patient and parent organisations can highlight forms of support and experiences that may otherwise remain outside formal healthcare data.
ON-COME is calling on healthcare professionals, paediatric oncology centres and patient and parent organisations across Europe to take part in the survey and help build a clearer picture of psychosocial and supportive care.
The more representative the mapping, the stronger the evidence will be to inform the next phase of ON-COME and support more consistent, accessible and integrated supportive care for children and families affected by cancer.
Help ON-COME understand psychosocial care across Europe: complete the survey and contribute to the evidence that will shape the project’s next steps.
ON-COME is co-funded by the European Union under the EU4Health Programme (Grant Agreement No. 101219424). The views expressed in this communication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the European Union or HaDEA.