The increasing incidence of cancer worldwide has an enormous impact on society and on the health care system. High quality cancer care is of utmost importance in combating the cancer ‘epidemics’ both locally and globally. In the Policy article published in the May Molecular Oncology issue; Sebastian Kehrloesser, Simon Oberst and colleagues analyse the attributes of European Cancer Centres (CCs) in order to identify existing inequalities across European countries and provide recommendations about how these may be resolved in the context of the EU Cancer Mission and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. Analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from 40 large European CCs demonstrated high standards of patient care, multidisciplinarity, and patient-centeredness in all accredited Comprehensive Cancer Centres (CCCs) and CCs. However, CCCs performed better than CCs in translational research, clinical trials and innovation. The data additionally revealed a variation in leadership- and management-related quality standards and outlined the importance of effective governance of CCs.