Activities

ChildGICR Childhood Cancer Registration online course in Tbilisi, Georgia, 19-23 June 2023

An online course was run in June 2023 to promote childhood cancer registration and implementation of international standards.

The course was organised in collaboration with the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC), Tbilisi, Georgia, under the auspices of the International Agency for Research on Cancer and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The course was completed by 30 health professionals involved in population-based cancer registration in the following countries: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Türkiye, and Ukraine.

ChildGICR Childhood Cancer Registration online courses

Two online courses were run in September 2022 to promote childhood cancer registration and implementation of international standards.

The courses were organised by Cancer Institute (W.I.A) in Chennai and Vietnam National Cancer Institute in Hanoi, under the auspices of the International Agency for Research on Cancer and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The course was completed by 58 health professionals involved in cancer registration and medical practice, who are active in the following countries:

• India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka;
• Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and the Philippines.

In follow-up meetings, held in January and February 2023, close to 80% of the participants confirmed that the course inspired them to promote childhood cancer registration as part of their working activities.

First ChildGICR Masterclass

As part of the ongoing activities of the GICRNet to form networks of regional trainers on specific topics in cancer registration, the ChildGICR Masterclass was launched last spring. From April to June 2021, nine live online sessions were held to discuss the creation of new education material for childhood cancer with selected participants worldwide. A post-course component was completed in July using small working groups.

The aim of the Masterclass was to increase the capacity of generating data on childhood cancer in population-based cancer registries. The Masterclass was developed in collaboration of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (SJCRH) as part of the bilateral agreement “Targeting Childhood Cancer through the Global Initiative for Cancer Registry development (ChildGICR)”.

Most participants were nominated to become part of the GICRNet, a network of trainers, who co-develop new education material and disseminate their expertise to those who need assistance in the six IARC Hub regions.

Overall, 22 participants from 19 countries completed the Masterclass. In working groups, they developed teaching material on seven topics, identified in a preceding survey of educational needs. Development of each topic was supported by a senior advisor according to a provided brief outline. The participants benefited from hands-on experience and learning opportunities through their mutual interaction. After the nine live sessions, they were ready to develop a template for a future course that they would organise in their local setting. All developed materials are under review and will result in a set of standard teaching material.

The outcomes of the ChildGICR Masterclass 2021 on childhood cancer registration are:

• Defined priority topics for training and dissemination;
• Standard teaching material for the defined topics;
• A network of trainers ready to share and exchange their knowledge;
• A training deployment plan; and,
• Trainers development programme.

Equipping the Masterclass participants with the skills relevant to registration of childhood cancers will facilitate knowledge dissemination, and consequently higher quality of cancer incidence data in low- and middle-income countries, which are indispensable for both planning and evaluation of national cancer control plans and for research. In the framework of the GICRNet, participants built a solid support network of collaborators to rely on during dissemination of their acquired expertise in the childhood cancer registration within their regions, in different languages.

Participants of the online ChildGICR Masterclass, in April 2021.