One of the core activities of the Cancer Information Section is to produce the
Cancer Incidence in Five Continents series, which IARC has published in nine successive volumes over the last 45 years. This publication contains cancer incidence data from all over the world collected in collaboration with population-based cancer registries.
Cancer Incidence in Five Continents, representing the burden of cancer worldwide, is the world's largest database of information on cancer incidence. It has been an invaluable tool for conducting cancer research, establishing and maintaining cancer control programmes, and determining healthcare policies. The latest volume, Volume IX, was launched in 2007 and includes data available from the time period 1998-2002. These data are made publicly available through the website
www-dep.iarc.fr.
The Cancer Information Section is also involved in supporting cancer registries. This includes providing administrative facilities and secretariat to the International Association of Cancer Registries (IACR,
www.iacr.com.fr) and the European Network of Cancer Registries (ENCR,
www.encr.com.fr); conducting site visits to assess feasibility and to advise in the establishment of new cancer registries; conducting follow-up, including data analyses, to monitor progress; developing, maintaining and supporting ad hoc software for the routine management of registry data; and providing individual and group training on rules, coding systems and in the use of the software.
To simplify data entry and basic data analysis, the Cancer Information Section created a software package called CanReg4 that is freely distributed to population-based cancer registries. CanReg4 has been used in more than 50 countries worldwide in more than 10 languages.
The EUROCOURSE project - tackles fragmentation in the funding by exploring links between national/regional programmers supporting cancer registries and research carried out using registry data. EUROCOURSE seeks optimization of the use of cancer registration data for improvement of cancer control and strengthening of population-based cancer research in Europe.
