Nepal Launches Population Based Cancer Registry

At a time when the numbers of incidents related to breast cancer increasing, Nepal Health Research Council recently launched Population Based Cancer Registry in Nepal (PBCR) following the workshop on PBCR.

With the approval of Ministry of Health and Population, the program was launched in last January in a presence of  executive chairperson Prof. Dr. Anjani Kumar Jha, Health Secretary, experts from International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), other influential members from MoH, directors of major cancer Hospitals, representative from civil registration, Oncologists, medical recorders of various hospitals of Kathmandu valley, Pathologist and staffs of NHRC.

This program is using CanReg5 software, which is the software specifically, designed to input, store, check and analyze cancer registry data.

According to Nepal Health Research Council, PBCR aims at collecting the information of all the new cases of cancer in a defined area. It is core component of providing information on burden of disease and cancer control activity. “As there is no any routine cancer surveillance and national cancer registry in Nepal and the estimates regarding cancer incidence, patterns and mortality depends upon the small scale data and the data from neighboring country, Hence Nepal Health Research Council under Ministry of Health is taking step forward in establishment of PBCR in Nepal,” said press release.

“Initially it will be started at Kathmandu valley i.e. Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur districts collecting all the new cancer cases diagnosed after January, 2018 and later expanded throughout Nepal. During the process, WHO country Nepal, International Agency for Research in Cancer, Lyon, France and the IARC Regional Hub Mumbai has remained very supportive,” reports Nepal Health Research Council website.

Prof. Dr. Anjani Kumar Jha, Executive Chairperson, NHRC highlighted the role of oncologist and medical recorders in PBCR and encourages them to support the registry through maintaining adequate information of cancer cases.

Given the necessity of PBCR in Nepal, Nepal Health research council is taking ownership in establishing PBCR and anticipates for the cooperation from all the sources of data on cancer cases.