PAHO in collaboration with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have joined forces to improve the quality of information on cancer in the Region.

About the role of IARC and PAHO during the next five years

IARC will support training and technical issues regarding cancer registration in the Region. The rationale behind it is to establish a group with expertise in Latin America and the Caribbean to support the cancer registries of the Region in producing and understanding data on cancer incidence.

Similarly, PAHO will support and ensure the program's sustainability through political recognition, training, and the identification of stakeholders.

Specific Goals

PAHO and IARC have identified four aspects that can be improved, regarding cancer registries and cancer information, within our Region: political, technical, educational/training, and communication.

Advances

Among the first year activities of the PAHO-IARC Collaboration plan, the following were attained:

• Development of 5-year strategic plan
• Completion of the first international training course: Cancer Registration and Data Quality Control in Population-Based Cancer Registries (Brasilia, 14-16 October 2009)
• Presentation of the Brasilia Statement on Improving Cancer Information (Brasilia, 14 October 2009)
• Completion of the second international course: Introduction to Population-based Cancer Registry & its Application to Cancer Epidemiology (Guayaquil, 12-16 April 2010