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Ten European countries have rules that let a person who has had cancer stop declaring it when applying for insurance or a loan once a set time has passed without the cancer coming back: five years in some countries, ten in others, and five everywhere for a cancer diagnosed in childhood.
The problem these laws address: long after treatment has ended, an application for life insurance, a mortgage or a business loan asks whether the applicant has ever had cancer, and a yes can mean refusal, a higher premium or an exclusion. A right-to-be-forgotten law sets a period after which the question may not be asked, or the answer may not be used.
A 2025 review in ESMO Open (André et al.) tabulates the European countries with such a measure in force, with the instrument and the standard waiting period as the review states them: France, Loi Lemoine 2022, 5 years; Belgium, Royal Decree 2025, 5 years; Luxembourg, government-industry convention 2020, 10 years; the Netherlands, Insurance Examinations Decree 2021, 10 years; Italy, Law 193/2023 with a health ministry grid of 22 March 2024, 10 years; Portugal, law of 1 January 2022, 10 years; Spain, Royal Decree-Law 5/2023, 5 years; Romania, law of 7 July 2022, 7 years; Cyprus, law of 23 November 2023, 10 years; Slovenia, law of November 2024 in force 2025, 7 years. The review notes that for a diagnosis before 18 (21 in Italy and the Netherlands) the period is 5 years in every jurisdiction listed, and that several countries set shorter periods for cancers with a very good outlook, such as ductal carcinoma in situ and melanoma in situ (1 year in France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands). ESMO's position in the same paper is a common European law based on a standard 5-year period.
OnCo has read four of these instruments in their official text: Spain's Royal Decree-Law 5/2023, Italy's Law 193 of 7 December 2023, the Dutch decree of 2 November 2020 and Portugal's Law 75/2021 of 18 November 2021, which is broader than cancer and covers any aggravated health risk or disability. Each has its own record. France's rule is described on OnCo's France country page from INCa's guidance; the French statute itself could not be read from Légifrance, which refused a script. The Belgian, Romanian, Cypriot and Slovenian texts could not be read from their official sites in this round, and Luxembourg's instrument is a convention rather than a statute, so for those five countries the review above is the only source here.
Showing the technology this term belongs to: Insurance, mortgages and the right to be forgotten.
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