Cancer

In July 2026, six new topics were added to the Implementation Agenda of the Care Evaluation and Appropriate Use program, requiring healthcare providers to implement applicable topics within two years. The topics cover several areas of medical specialist care, including gastrointestinal, e-health, rehabilitation, and spine.

On July 23, 2026, the Belgian National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI/RIZIV) introduced a new Convention (agreement) to centralize care for patients with head and neck cancers at a limited number of approved reference centers and specialized radiotherapy centers. Healthcare organizations wishing to join the agreement should submit their application no later than October 1, 2026.

On August 6, 2026, the French Ministry of Health published the instruction for the 2026/27 application campaign for coverage with evidence development programs. The instruction outlines the research priorities, eligibility criteria, application procedures, and timelines for the different programs, including PHRC, PRME, PREPS, PHRIP, and PRT.

In June 2026, Health Technology Wales (HTW) accomplished one full appraisal on cone-beam computed tomography for breast imaging in people with suspected breast cancer. Additionally, three Med Tech-related Topic Exploration Reports were published in the fields of e-health and in vitro diagnostics.

On June 9, 2026, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health published changes to the Healthcare Benefit Ordinance (KLV/OPre), which determines coverage of medical services in Switzerland. The nearest changes will take effect on July 1, 2026, and include the introduction of the first-trimester preeclampsia screening and adjustment of the tariffs for the highest-grossing laboratory analyses (Annex 3 KLV), changes in reimbursement conditions for medical aids via the List of Medical Aids MiGel (Annex 2 KLV), as well as the expansion of the outpatient-before-inpatient policy (Annex 1a KLV) and update of coverage decisions on the List of explicitly evaluated services (Annex 1 KLV).

Between January 1 and June 1, 2026, seven MedTech-related mini-HTAs were initiated in Norway across orthopedics, neurology and rehabilitation, in vitro diagnostics, interventional radiology, diagnostic imaging, and e-health. These assessments are conducted as part of Norway’s framework for the managed introduction of innovations, known as “New Methods”.

In June 2026, NHS England announced the fourth round of its NHS Cancer Program Innovation Open Call funding competition. The call is seeking innovations that address two key challenges: improving productivity by managing demand or increasing capacity across cancer care pathways, and driving earlier detection and diagnosis of cancer. Applications are expected to open in September 2026, with potential applicants invited to attend a briefing webinar on June 18, 2026.

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.