Dr Max Parkin
Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Oxford University Senior Visiting Scientist, Lyon, IARC
Dr Freddie Bray
Hub officer, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
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In collaboration with the International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research (INCTR) and based in Oxford (United Kingdom), a virtual Hub was established in 2012. By an agreement, the African Cancer Registry Network (AFCRN) acts as a consortium to provide Hub activities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
A brief overview of population-based cancer registries (PBCRs) and their role in cancer control by Dr Freddie Bray, with a focus on the Sub-Saharan Africa Hub.
Coverage
The Hub covers 48 countries in the four regions of sub-Saharan Africa: East Africa (Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe); Middle Africa (Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon); Southern Africa (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa); and West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo).
Although all registries in countries within the region are eligible for AFCRN membership, the registry must be population-based, achieve at least 50% coverage of the target population, and be invited to join after an evaluation visit by a consultant.
Bourama Coulibaly
Registre de Cancer de Bamako, Mali
Cecile Ingabire
AFRCN Childhood Cancer Registry Project, Rwanda
Eric Chokunonga
National Cancer Registry Zimbabwe
Franck Gnahatin
Registre du Cancer d'Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Fred Kwame Awittor
Kumasi Cancer Registry, Ghana
Gauthier Tougri
Ministère de la Santé, Cabinet du Ministre Chef de l'Unité de gestion et de transfer des connaissances (UGTC), Burkina Faso
Gladys Chesumbai
Moi University, Kenya
Xolisile Dlamini
Ministry of Health Eswatini
Long-standing high-quality registries in the region are located in Uganda (Kampala) and Zimbabwe (Harare). The Malawi (Blantyre) and the South African registries were accepted in IARC's Cancer Incidence in Five Continents Volume X. The registry in South Africa (the PROMEC registry) covers the rural population of 1.3 million in the former Transkei region of the Eastern Cape Province.
The countries where population-based cancer registries are developing and producing data include highly populated Nigeria in the North; Kenya, Ethiopia, and United Republic of Tanzania in the East; and The Gambia and Guinea in the West. Efforts are under way to start an expansion in Mozambique and South Africa.
There are a considerable number of registry developments under way within the 30 current AFCRN members across 19 countries, although there remain about 18 countries in the region where there are no data available or the status of registration is presently unknown.
