Patent knowledge in the fight against cancer

Brand-new Espacenet platform on technologies combatting cancer

After the success of the first three technology platforms – fighting coronavirus, clean energy technologies and firefighting technologies (see links below) – the EPO is proud to publish a new Espacenet platform on technologies combatting cancer. This platform contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: Good health and Well-being.  

The EU's report Conquering Cancer: Mission Possible reveals that 2.6 million people are diagnosed with cancer in the EU every year, with 1.2 million people dying from it. Europe makes up less than 10% of the world's population, but accounts for 22.8% of global cancer diagnoses, according to the World Health Organization. 

While medical advances are improving mortality rates in other diseases, cancer rates are expected to rise due to aging populations, unhealthy lifestyles and unfavourable environments.  

Addressing this challenge requires innovation in cancer-combating technologies; access to pertinent knowledge, particularly from patents, is crucial for global success. 

The EPO's cancer platform provides 130+ datasets across four main themes to aid researchers and scientists alike in the fight against cancer: 

• Prevention and early detection 
• Diagnostics 
• Therapies 
• Well-being and aftercare 

These search concepts were developed by a team of EPO patent examiners from multiple technical fields along with experts from the national intellectual property offices of Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Türkiye.   

Each query making up these search concepts combines keywords and relevant IPC or CPC classes and will be updated regularly. These queries reduce the more than 150 million data sets to just a few thousand. It takes four simple steps to view the search results in the EPO's free Espacenet search tool:    

1. Go to the Technologies combatting cancer platform.   
2. Choose the area of interest.   
3. Select See statistics – this triggers the Espacenet search.   
4. View the results and adapt the query as required.  

The aim of the platform is to equip researchers, scientists and investors all around the world with access to the right know-how to combat cancer. Those working in this field can now explore the wealth of information stored in patents without prior experience of patent searching. By providing an accessible gateway to patent information, the EPO hopes to foster collaboration and advance the global fight against cancer.  

Keywords: Cancer, patent knowledge, platform, SDG