IARC marks International Childhood Cancer Day 2023

Only about 15% of the world’s population of children are currently covered by population-based cancer registries, which are essential to monitor progress towards the goal of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer. This WHO initiative aims to achieve at least 60% survival for children and adolescents (aged 0–19 years) with cancer globally by 2030, from rates as low as 20–30% in some low- and middle-income countries.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is leading the Targeting Childhood Cancer through the Global Initiative for Cancer Registry Development (ChildGICR) project. The aims of the project are to improve the quality and availability of data on cancer in children, particularly in countries with limited resources; to train professionals in the principles of childhood cancer registration; to expand the capacity of childhood cancer registries; and to measure progress towards the goal of the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer.

In new Questions and Answers to mark International Childhood Cancer Day, Dr Eva Steliarova-Foucher, a scientist in the Cancer Surveillance Branch at IARC, provides a brief overview of the capacity-building activities that IARC is undertaking within the framework of the ChildGICR project.

Cancer is relatively rare in childhood, and the cancer types that develop in children tend to differ in important respects from those in adults. These are two of the factors that contribute to the low level of coverage of childhood cancers by population-based cancer registries.

Read the Q&A with Dr Steliarova-Foucher 

Read more about the ChildGICR project