5 March 2025, Cairo, Egypt – In 2024, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean celebrated 10 years of collaboration supporting cancer surveillance.

The IARC-WHO Regional Office partnership has ensured a decade of progress in the development of sustainable and high-quality cancer surveillance systems in countries across the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

In a new policy review published in The Lancet Oncology, scientists and public health experts from IARC and the Regional Office describe the present cancer profile of the Eastern Mediterranean Region as a whole, and of individual countries within the Region, as well as joint activities carried out by IARC and the Regional Office during the past decade aimed at building capacity in cancer surveillance.

IARC, through the Global Initiative for Cancer Registry Development (GICR) and the Regional Office, have provided technical support to 20 Eastern Mediterranean countries, including site visits and tailored recommendations to 12 countries. Over a series of 5 workshops covering basic and advanced cancer registration topics, more than 100 cancer registry professionals have been trained over the last decade, including 3 GICRNet regional trainers. Working in tandem with the IARC Regional Hub for Cancer Registration in Northern Africa, Central and Western Asia (Izmir Hub, Türkiye), and respective WHO country offices, cancer registry teams from 5 countries in the Region received on-site training in cancer registration procedures at the Izmir Cancer Registry.

See:

Znoar A, Fouad H, Zahwe M, Eser S, Fadhil I, Soerjomataram I, Hammermich A, Bray F. Cancer surveillance in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: a 10-year IARC-WHO EMRO collaboration, Cancer surveillance in the Eastern Mediterranean region: a 10-year International Agency for Research on Cancer–WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean collaboration: Lancet Oncology; 3 March 2025