DOHA: Qatar has become the first Gulf country to join the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Qatar and Brazil are the newest members of this specialised agency, becoming, respectively, the 24th and 23rd countries to join it.
Collaboration between Qatar and IARC will focus on developing prevention and early detection strategies, to address the surge in cancers linked to lifestyle factors such as unhealthy diet, obesity, and lack of exercise.
In Qatar, cancer is the third most common cause of death, and the burden is expected to nearly treble in the next 20 years, IARC said yesterday.
Other key areas of cooperation will include collaboration on the development and implementation of quality assurance in screening programmes for colorectal and breast cancers and a review of the environmental exposure to carcinogens in the country.
“Brazil and Qatar have placed the fight against cancer at the forefront of their public health policies, and both have a strategic role to play in their regions,” said IARC Director Dr Christopher Wild at IARC’s yearly Governing Council meeting.
“The membership of Brazil and Qatar is a great opportunity to further develop key partnerships and collaborative research programmes in these regions,” he added.
Qatar has made significant investments in cancer research and aims to play a leading role in this field. This new cooperation will also help IARC formulate research priorities and develop new collaborative efforts with other countries of the Gulf region.
“Above all, the admission of New Participating States from regions of the world that were not previously represented in IARC’s governing structures signals a fresh joining of forces to conduct research which will ultimately lead to less suffering from this disease across the world,” concluded Wild.
Despite very different contexts, both countries are expected to face a large increase in cancer cases in the future, and implementing efficient cancer control policies is thus a high public health priority, IARC said yesterday.
In Brazil, cancer is the second most common cause of morbidity and mortality. The number of new cases per year is predicted to rise by more than 75 per cent in the next 20 years, simply because of population growth and ageing.
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