COLLABORATIONS in 2018
The official partnership between AFCRN and IARC continues. AFCRN provides the facilities and features of a “Regional Hub” for sub-Saharan Africa, as part of the Global initiative for Cancer Registration (GICR). The capacity of AFCRN to undertake this work is supported through funds received via a contract (APW - Agreement for Performance of Work). This included funds provided by The GAVI Alliance (the “Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation”) and a contribution from CDC to IARC.
American Cancer Society (ACS). It was suggested that the new series of Cancer in sub Saharan Africa should be prepared in 2018. Paper of the first results from Gulu cancer registry and the Cotonou cancer registry have been submitted to peer reviewed journals. A study of trends in incidence of breast cancer in SSA will also be published during 2018. Also, the additional support from ACS allows an AFCRN TNM staging and coding course in November to include more students.
AFCRN Database. As membership criteria, a new data submission, comprising a listing of case records (anonymous) from each AFCRN member, was requested in June. The database is hosted by IARC under a Research Agreement. Contributing to the database is a criteria for membership of AFCRN and most members did so. A few experiencing technical difficulties are working on the request. Access for research studies (including by IARC researchers) is via request to the AFCRN Research Committee.
Data from this year’s submission will be used for ‘Cancer in sub Saharan Africa III’.
Treatment and Follow-up Study. A research study Comparing therapy and outcome in cancer patients of low and middle resource settings using population-based registries , led by Dr Eva Kantelhardt, is in its final stage. The study focuses on the most frequent cancers in females and males in sub Saharan Africa, for which early diagnosis, and effective treatment, are expected to result in favourable outcomes: Breast (female), cervix, prostate and colorectal cancers, and non-Hodgkin lymphomas).
Data collected from the 11 centres (Eldoret, Nairobi, Cotonou, Brazzaville, Abidjan, Bamako, Maputo, Namibia, Kampala, Bulawayo and Addis Ababa) has been analysed and used for publications. Each publication focuses on one site are being prepared by the German medical students as well as the Oxford DPhil candidate (Dr Yvonne Joko).
Make Cancer a Reportable Disease In collaboration with IARC and WHO AFRO, AFCRN took initiative and searched the existing legislation and regulations from African countries, as well as from other parts of the world to try to draft a model regulation that could be recommended to member states by WHO.
So far, the only regulation available within the African continent was the one from RSA. Since the UICC WCC (Nov 2016), Dr Parkin had been in contact with Mr Jonathan Liberman from the Cancer Council and the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer, Australia to pursue their professional voluntary help.
The proposal has also been put to the Bloomberg Foundation and early discussions have been held.