First dedicated population-based childhood cancer registry in India releases inaugural report

Dr Eva Steliarova-Foucher, a scientist in the Cancer Surveillance Branch at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), will participate in the inaugural meeting of the first population-based cancer registry dedicated to childhood cancer in India, which is based in Chennai.

The Pediatric Cancer Registry and Data Meeting is being organized by the Cancer Institute (WIA – Women’s Indian Association) in Chennai, India, on 31 January and 1 February 2025. The meeting is hosted by Professor Venkatraman Radhakrishnan, the head of the registry, who is also an IARC Global Initiative for Cancer Registry Development (GICR) trainer in childhood cancer registration. The childhood cancer registry closely collaborates with the Chennai population-based cancer registry, which has been run from WIA since 1982 and is currently led by Professor Swaminathan Rajaraman, a long-standing IARC collaborator.

In the presence of the Minister of Health and Family Welfare of Tamil Nadu state, Professor Radhakrishnan will present the first registry report on childhood cancer incidence and survival. At this occasion, an expanded statewide population-based childhood cancer registry, the Tamil Nadu and the Indian Pediatric Haematology Oncology Group Hospital-Based Childhood Cancer Registry, will be launched.

The registry report describes the burden of childhood cancer in the Greater Chennai Zone. The incidence rate was 136 per million during 2022–2023. The 2-year survival was 60% for all registered patients and 70% for patients for whom it was possible to obtain high-resolution data. The main added value of the childhood cancer registry is recording additional variables, such as stage and treatment. The report also includes an assessment of barriers and enablers for implementing the registry, described in a recently published stand-alone article in the journal Pediatric Blood and Cancer.

Dr Steliarova-Foucher will speak about the history and evolution of childhood cancer registration and will take part in discussions about the challenges of paediatric cancer data collection, registration, and quality control.

These activities in Tamil Nadu state exemplify mobilization of communities joining the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer to improve the availability of data on the childhood cancer burden and achieve at least 60% survival of children with cancer globally by 2030.

Read the article “Assessment of barriers and enablers for implementing a population-based childhood cancer registry in Chennai, India”