Establishing the Kumasi Cancer Registry: Reflections on epidemiologic surveillance of cancers in Africa

Issues: Cancers are increasingly important contributors to morbidity and mortality in developing and resource-poor areas. According to the World Health Organization, by 2020, there may be 16 million new cancer cases per annum, 70% of which occurring in developing countries. In these contexts, cancer patients are more likely to present at late stages, with poor prognoses. The capacity to adequately evaluate the burden of cancer in African populations is limited, yet important to improving cancer control efforts. Description: We present a brief history of cancer in Africa, subsequently describing the current state of cancer registration in Sub-Saharan Africa, utilizing data from active hospital and population-based cancer registries (PBCR). We will discuss the fundamental principles of PBCR and cancer surveillance and the context-specific challenges to capacity-building in cancer surveillance observed during an 11-month multinational fellowship experience focused on cancer registrar training and registry development. Lessons Learned: We will describe the curriculum content and approaches used to build a new cancer registration team in Kumasi, Ghana, and highlight the registry protocol development milestones reached during the fellowship period. Recommendations: Multinational collaborative capacity-building efforts, which harness local intellectual and logistics resources, will continue to improve the cancers surveillance in Sub-Saharan Africa.