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Thomas Hofmarcher: Honored to participate in a workshop on NCCPs in Saudi Arabia

Thomas Hofmarcher/LinkedIn

Feb 19, 2025, 15:40

Thomas Hofmarcher: Honored to participate in a workshop on NCCPs in Saudi Arabia

Thomas Hofmarcher, Research Director at IHE – The Swedish Institute for Health Economics, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“My very first visit to Saudi Arabia did not disappoint. I had the honor to participate in a workshop on National Cancer Control Programs (NCCPs), as the kingdom currently seeks to update its NCCP.

The workshop at the King Saud University was moderated by Prof. Khalid Al Saleh. Prof. Mushabbab Al Asiri provided a very nice overview of cancer in Saudi Arabia with fresh data from the Saudi Cancer Registry. Afterwards, it was time for some international experts to share their view on NCCPs.

Andre Lopes Carvalho shared the perspective from IARC – International Agency for Research on Cancer/World Health Organization and Yannick R. shared the perspective from the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), which has developed a very impressive toolkit to support countries.

In my part, I shared international experiences on the public health impact of NCCPs.

My five takeaways for the audience were the following:

NCCPs are essential for effective cancer governance, providing a structured approach to cancer prevention, treatment, and care.
Many NCCPs remain incomplete, often lacking funding or failing to address key aspects such as survivorship and psychosocial care.
In fragmented healthcare systems, strong coordination is even more critical to ensure effective cancer control and patient outcomes.
Evidence shows that well-governed cancer care systems achieve greater survival improvements, highlighting the importance of strategic policy implementation.
Implementing evidence-based public health policies through NCCPs can reduce the future burden of cancer, yielding economic returns and improving long-term outcomes of patients.

Thank you to the organizers for the opportunity to share IHE’s expertise!”

Thomas Hofmarcher: Honored to participate in a workshop on NCCPs in Saudi Arabia