The principal investigators of the INCTR-supported East African Registry Network (EARN) met for their annual review and planning meeting in Arusha, Tanzania on January 17th through the 19th. The group agreed to the work program for the next 12 months which includes ongoing in-depth studies in the established registries and activities to develop a regional hub for cancer registration in sub-Saharan Africa. EARN is a project of INCTR’s Cancer Registry Program and is supported by a grant from the Doris Duke Cancer Foundation of the USA. The group reviewed progress in 2011, which was based around studies of stage at diagnosis (for breast and cervix cancer), and survival for these two cancers plus cancers of the esophagus and prostate (the most common cancers of men in the region) in the four established registries in Kampala (Uganda), Nairobi (Kenya), Blantyre (Malawi), and Harare (Zimbabwe). EARN has also assisted in developing a new registry in Rwanda. It worked with a team from the Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenburg, Germany in setting up a cancer registry for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which will make available the very first cancer incidence data from this large country. A new registry is also developing in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). Four of the members intend to complete submission of data for the 10th edition of “Cancer Incidence in Five Continents”.
In 2012, support will be given to existing registries in the region (Eldoret, Kenya, and Kilimanjaro, Tanzania) to upgrade current activities as well as to expand geographic coverage. The group also agreed upon a schedule of activities that will permit EARN to act as a “regional hub” to support cancer registration activities in sub-Saharan Africa, as part of the “Global Initiative in Cancer Registration” of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
*Picture: The members on EARN at the meeting in Arusha