Luxembourg

Healthcare System

Luxembourg operates under a mandatory health insurance model, with around 95% of the resident population covered by the compulsory Social Health Insurance (SHI) scheme, administered by the National Health Insurance (Caisse Nationale de Santé, CNS). This scheme includes three components: healthcare, sickness leave, and long-term care insurance.

The healthcare system is managed by the Ministry of Health, responsible for health policy and provider licensing, and the Ministry of Social Security, overseeing public funding for health services and the CNS. The Ministry of Family Affairs manages long-term care facilities and services for disabled people.

Coverage under the SHI scheme is comprehensive, including preventative healthcare, inpatient and outpatient hospital care, and more. About 65% of the population additionally purchases voluntary health insurance (VHI) for supplementary services and co-payments, such as dental care and eyeglasses.

To access these benefits, residents must be registered with social security, typically handled by employers. Patients have unrestricted access to all levels of care, with free choice of providers. Approximately 84% of health spending is publicly funded, with remaining costs covered out-of-pocket or by VHI.

Health data, including Electronic Health Records (Dossier de Soins Partagé, DSP), is managed by the National Association of Healthcare Data (Agence eSanté), facilitating communication among healthcare providers. The CNS handles claims data for monitoring and evaluation purposes. National health registries track specific health conditions for research and public health initiatives.

Registries

Database: National Register of Cancer (RNC)

[1]

Sponsor, manager or home institution: The National Minister of Health and the Center of Expertise in Public Health (Department of Population Health of the Luxembourg Institute of Health).

Primary purpose: Collects information from all the new cases of cancer that have been diagnosed and/or treated in the Luxembourg territory (includes information about residents and non-residents of the country). With this data, it is possible to monitor and enhance the quality of care and epidemiological surveillance.

Type of information: Type of information RNC - Luxembourg

Available type of information: Crude incidence tax by 100,000 inhabitants per year;

Standardized rate for the European population by 100,000 inhabitants per year;

Cumulative risk of cancer before 65 years;

Cumulative risk of cancer before 75 years;

Distribution of new cases of cancer by age group;

%Relative frequency of new cases of the 10 main tumor locations by sex.

Source of Information: Main sources - Hospital Cancer Registries, and the National Health Laboratory; Auxiliary sources - National cancer screening programs (breast cancer, colorectal, other national cancer screening programs), Social Security Medical Control, the National Health Fund, the Common Health Insurance Scheme of the European Communities (JSIS), the Directorate of Health: Death certificates, Civil Registry, Private medical analysis laboratories.

Data level: Patient-level.

Available data level: National-level.

Number of Records: Unknown.

Date Range: 2013 onwards.

Cancer Areas of Interest: All primary in situ and invasive tumors are recorded, except for non-melanoma skin cancers; For benign tumors or tumors with uncertain evolution, only the following tumors are recorded (benign tumors with uncertain evolution of central nervous system (C70, C71 et C72) and intracerebral endocrine glands (C75.1 à C75.5); thymomas (C37.9); ovarians borderline tumors (C56.9); invasive hydatidiform mole (placenta tumor) (C58.9); pTa non-invasive papillary carcinoma of bladder (C67.*), urethra (C68.0), ureters (C66.9) and renal pelvis (C65.9); low-grade mucinous neoplasia limited to the appendix (LAMN); gastro-intestinal stroma tumors). High-grade intraepithelial neoplasia of the cervix, vulva, vagina, penis, prostate, and anus are also recorded.

Data access: To request access to restricted data, it is necessary to follow the procedures indicated in "Annex 2" of the document "Procedures for disclosure of results", available on this website.

Open data access: Some data can be seen in the publications section of the RNC website in the topics "reports"and "epidemiological factsheets".

Information/Contact for data request: Contact information

Database: Mortality by cause of death

[2]

Primary purpose: Register the occurrence and cause of mortality in Luxembourg territory for residents and non-residents.

Sponsor, manager or home institution: Directorate of Health.

Type of information: Type of information - Mortality by cause of death Luxembourg

Available type of information: Number of deaths by cause and sex, by chapter (residents and non-residents);

Distribution of deaths by cause and sex, by chapter (residents and non-residents);

Crude death rate per 100,000 population, by cause and sex, by chapter (residents);

Evolution of the number of deaths by cause and sex, by chapter (residents and non-residents);

Evolution of the crude mortality rate per 100,000 inhabitants, by cause and sex, by chapter (residents);

Number of deaths by cause and sex, by block or group (residents and non-residents);

Number of deaths by cause and sex, all causes (residents and non-residents);

Number of deaths by cause, age group and sex, by chapter (residents and non-residents);

Number of deaths by cause, age group and sex, by block or group (residents and non-residents);

Number of deaths by cause, age group and sex, all causes (residents and non-residents);

Number of people residing abroad who died in Luxembourg, broken down by sex and country of residence, all causes;

Standardized death rate per 100,000 population in European countries, by chapter.

Source of information: Death certificates.

Data level: Patient-level.

Availabe data level: National-level.

Number of Records: Unknown.

Date range: 1963 onwards.

Cancer Areas of Interest: Cancer areas of interest - Mortality by cause of death Luxembourg

Open data access: Most of the open information can be seen in the published reports, which can be accessed here. Number of deaths by type of tumor and year is available in this website in the table "Death by cause" in the topic "Health" of the "Social conditions" section.

Data access: Access to restricted content needs to be requested by contacting the Directorate of Health, present in the topic bellow.

Information/contact for data request: Contact information.

Cancer-related Patient Associations and Resources

Compilation: ESMO Patient Guides

Sponsor, manager or home institution: European Society for Medical Oncology

Primary purpose: To translate complex medical language into understandable information for patients.

Available guides: Cancer Treatment During the COVID-19 Pandemic; Immunotherapy Side Effects and Their Management; Personalized Medicine; Survival; Colorectal Cancer; Endometrial Cancer; Stomach Cancer; Gliomas; AML; CML; Follicular Lymphoma; Bone Sarcomas; Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC); Head and Neck Cancer; Soft Tissue Sarcomas.

Type of information: Information on each guide varies for each cancer type. Generally, guides provide definitions, explanations of causes, diagnosis, treatment, treatment options, care after treatment, among others.

Access to information: List of guides [3].