Strengthening Cancer Registration in Sub-Saharan Africa

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)-Global Institute for Cancer Research Centre (GICR) for Sub-Saharan Africa KEMRI, held a week-long Basic Cancer Registration training, mentorship and technical support course for population-based cancer registries in Sub Saharan Africa at the Kenya Comfort Hotel and Suites in Nairobi.

The training drew in participants from Zambia, South Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, Botswana, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya and aimed at improving the quality of data generated for cancer surveillance and research in the region serving as a second training following a virtual training which hosted over 500 participants from the African region and had participants competitively selected for the physical training.

Speaking during the opening ceremony while representing Dr. Linus Ndegwa the Ag Deputy Director CCR, Mrs. Anne Korir welcomed the trainees to the country and highlighted on the crucial role of Cancer Registry data in planning, indicating dimensions, and time management to inform standard control interventions, which is vital in saving lives and shaping healthcare initiatives and therefore the need to produce quality data in registries. She also encouraged the participants to be ambassadors of good will by learning and capacity building their colleagues so that they can produce high quality data in their registries. “I sincerely want to welcome you all to our beautiful country Kenya and to congratulate you for making it to be part of this cohort training which comes after a competitive selection, and I encourage use to use this opportunity to learn, take back the skill to train your people so that we can all generate quality data from our registries,” she said.

Cancer registration is a method which involves a systematic collection of information about the occurrence of cancer, the types of cancer, the extent of the disease and plays a key role in understanding the burden of cancer, evaluating the effectiveness of prevention and control programs and to guide resource allocation to inform on the efforts to reduce the cancer burden which can be achieved through collection of quality data within different cancer registries.

The global push for cervical cancer elimination that was passed by the WHO stresses the importance of data noting that despite preventive measures like screening and vaccination, women, in their thirties and forties, die from cervical cancer a negative impact to families and the continent significantly. Eliminating cervical cancer is dependent on the data generated, and it supports directives for effective control measures which largely depends on the quality of data generated from cancer registries.

The training focused on equipping participants with skills in cancer registration, data collection and focused on Basic Cancer Registration Principles and Methods, CanReg5 Database, and involved practical data collection activities, site visits and presentations and is a collaborative effort between KEMRI, World Health Organization (WHO): International Agency for Research on Cancer, The Global Initiative for Cancer Registry Development (GICR), Vital Strategies, African Cancer Registry Network (AFCRN) with Ms. Anne Korir being the Principal Investigator and Ms. Gladys Chesumbai as the Co-PI and was facilitated by Ms Anne Koskei, Mr. Evans Kiptanui and Mr. Nathan Okerosi from the KEMRI Cancer Registry.

The week-long training fostered a collaborative learning environment where participants exchanged experiences, best practices and the challenges encountered in cancer registration and successfully ended with a team building activity at the Karura forest and served as a valuable platform for capacity building in cancer registration, a networking opportunity among participants in the field of cancer registration and largely contributes to improved cancer control and health outcome