4 February is World Cancer Day. Read the latest Cochrane evidence relevant to cancer research and prevention.
The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and Cochrane are pleased to announce that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop and implement joint activities that support evidence-based advocacy for cancer control.
This collaboration is timely, as building the political will to implement improvements in cancer control is possibly the greatest challenge in the global fight against cancer. It requires organizations to work together to enable effective, impartial, and evidence-based advocacy across governments, with donors and the international health sphere.
Marshalling the evidence to support these efforts poses a significant challenge. The International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers found that in March 2015, 34,500 peer-reviewed scientific, technological, and medical research journals existed, publishing around 2.5 million articles annually. These resources are scattered across a multitude of library archives and online databases. Fortunately the rapid growth of information technology and of the Internet has helped the retrieval of this evidence and the development of systematic reviews and meta-analyses that extract meaning from this mountain of literature.
Building on Cochrane’s significant experience reviewing interventions across the cancer control spectrum and UICC’s membership, the two organizations have come together to strengthen international cancer control advocacy. Discussions are currently underway to determine the methodology to combine and strengthen UICC’s advocacy efforts with evidence from Cochrane Reviews and expertise. The result will enable UICC member organizations to draw on an even greater wealth of global experience and insight to support the implementation of national policies and cancer control programmes and services in line with the commitments to non-communicable disease reduction targets by 2025, and the 2030 agenda of the new Sustainable Development Goals.
UICC looks forward to working alongside Cochrane to promote their resources and enable UICC members to share data with Cochrane and help identify priority areas for new reviews in the cancer control field.
About UICC
UICC is the largest cancer-fighting organization of its kind, with more than 900 member organizations across 155 countries representing the world's major cancer societies, ministries of health, research institutes, treatment centres, and patient groups.
The organization is dedicated to taking the lead in convening, capacity building, and advocacy initiatives that unite the cancer community to reduce the global cancer burden, promote greater equity, and integrate cancer control into the world health and development agenda.