ACT 4 Children shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Improving care quality and access is an important area of focus for the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (World Health Organization), but progress can only be sustained if health systems have a clear understanding of the prevalence and incidence of different childhood cancers among the populations they serve, and survival rates for those cancers.
Population-based cancer registries are critical resources for gathering such data; however, they are established in only one in three countries worldwide.
Less than 15% of the world population of children is covered by registries able to provide useful data on childhood cancer burden, with coverage falling to as low as 5% in Africa and Asia.
The program, Child Global Initiative for Cancer Registry development, or ChildGICR, complements the GICC and involves the development of implementation strategies, capacity building, and evidence-based standards for childhood cancer registration, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
An adapted classification of childhood cancers is particularly important for disease surveillance and research because childhood cancers are uncommon and distinct from the cancers that more frequently affect adults. Specialized pediatric cancer registries are already in use in some high- and middle-income countries, where they produce excellent results, collating information including treatment and outcome for each patient.”
Other articles about Childhood Cancer on OncoDaily.