Isabel Mestres, CEO of City Cancer Challenge (C/Can), shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Impact in Action | 2025 A year with measurable impact.
City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) works through cities as system connectors, strengthening cancer care from policy to practice. By aligning institutions, data, people, and care pathways, we enable coordinated, equitable, and sustainable solutions that can be scaled at national level.
A few examples of what cities delivered
– 60,000+ women screened in Cali, with biopsy wait times cut nearly in half.
– Asunción reduced time to treatment for HER2+ breast cancer by 53%.
– Phnom Penh conducted the Oncology Medicines Assessment and advanced essential pathology and lab training.
– Nairobi accelerated progress in radiotherapy, pediatrics, and health financing and hosted IAEA’s regional imaging training.
– Abuja strengthened national coordination and readiness ahead of the 2026 Africa Cancer Forum.
– 2,230+ health professionals trained, with 94% reporting improved skills and confidence.
Intrapreneurship at C/Can
– Deployment of the Oncology Medicines Availability Tool, creating new system-wide insights to guide policy and access.
– Launch of the Diagnostics Budget Impact Analysis (BIA) Tool, to guide the inclusion of cancer diagnostics in UHC packages
– C/Can CONNECT, our patient software, selected for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology DesignX Accelerator, validating its global potential to transform cancer pathways.
Partnerships that powered change
– 56 technical partners now driving global expertise into local action, including new landmark collaborations with the The Global Surgery Foundation, the Africa Clinical Research Network – ACRN, IQN Path ASBL and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
– Implementation Partnership with World Health Organization and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reinforced and expanded across additional countries.
– C/Can selected to join the Milken Institute Women’s Health Network, a new global collaborative aimed at accelerating progress across the women’s health ecosystem.
– Air Europa’s in-kind partnership converted miles into real savings, enabling more direct support to cities.
And behind it all: people
Local champions, the change-makers working every day to strengthen their systems and serve their people, with the support of C/Can and its partners.
A heartfelt thank you to all our donors who make this work possible. I wish I could tag each of you, but LinkedIn limits to 25.”
More posts featuring Isabel Mestres on OncoDaily.
