Programme

The expected long-term economic impacts of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, alongside ongoing uncertainty regarding the virology and epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2, will have medium- to long-term implications for cancer research. This session will aim to answer these questions: How does this emerging public health and economic context redefine cancer research priorities? How do we reassess, acknowledging new economic and practical realities, and continue to drive forward cancer control in all countries and still make progress towards 2030 goals?

This session will promote the concept that Precision Medicine encompasses therapeutic, preventive, and public policy aspects in the region. It will also unify the language on Precision Medicine, collating the different interpretations that exist of it, transforming the term into a tool for exchange and progress.

By combining these objectives, four of the targets of the World Cancer Declaration will be included: strengthening of health systems, universal access to screening and early detection, improving access to services across the cancer care continuum, and improving education and training of health care professionals.

The purpose of this session is to describe the CIRGO coalition's model for cancer care research and to share recent findings from implementation research projects funded through CIRGO grants. A group of investigators from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) will participate in a facilitated panel discussion. The aim is to foster discourse and encourage implementation of science research for cancer in LMICs.

This session will focus on Indigenous data in cancer control, Indigenous ways of knowing, and effective engagement with Indigenous partners. The context is to support the development of meaningful and relevant data and qualitative stories that can be used to tell a story of progress on implementing a national cancer plan. Canada will share lessons learned from co-developing quantitative and qualitative progress indicators and building relationships with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis partners. NZ will talk about Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge systems) and processes to engage Māori leaders, including through working with a Māori cancer leadership network and hosting a series of hui (meetings) for nearly 3000 Māori whānau which aimed to help to design cancer services to better meet the needs of Māori community. Cancer Australia will share examples of targeted strategies and programs, such as culturally specific website and resources, support for clinical trials, and priority driven research schemes specifically aimed for and developed with Indigenous Australians. This symposium addresses target across the World Cancer Declaration, with a particular focus on Target 2; developing meaningful cancer data for Indigenous populations and tracking progress on cancer plans will help support improved cancer outcomes.  The session will share broader lessons from effective indigenous partner engagement that can be applied to engaging underserved and marginalized populations in other countries and reporting on gaps and progress for those populations.

The 54 countries of The Commonwealth carry some of the highest cervical cancer rates globally, but also some of the lowest rates. This disparity in cervical cancer outcomes is largely driven by inequity in access to information and services for what is a preventable cancer, as well as a high HIV burden in some commonwealth countries and a lack of well-equipped diagnostic and treatment facilities necessary for comprehensive cancer services.

The COVID 19 pandemic has severely interrupted cervical cancer services such as HPV vaccination and screening across Commonwealth countries. However, it is important to note that systems innovations have been introduced either during the pandemic across countries or prior to the pandemic and can be leveraged to support accelerated action on cervical cancer to achieve the targets of the cervical cancer elimination strategy.

This session does not lay out the problem of cervical cancer, as this is well known. Rather, the session looks at how Commonwealth countries can move forward with their cervical cancer elimination efforts building on some of these systems and policy innovations- such as an integrated information system to track cervical cancer screening, using virtual reality to improve surgery capacity, and developing a voluntary information and price sharing database for commonwealth countries which includes HPV vaccines. Finally, there will be a policy perspective from a former Minister of Health and cervical cancer advocate around key considerations in moving from small pilot projects to national implementation. Each speaker will present the key elements of the session in a more ‘ted talk’ style presentation (with minimal use of slides).

The topics addressed in the session relate to targets 1, 4 and 6 of the World Cancer Declaration and offer feasible, and implementable practices that can be undertaken in other countries.

The aim of the proposed session is to acquaint the audience with a novel approach for improving access to innovative medicines for children and adolescents with cancer – the ACCELERATE multi-stakeholder platform in paediatric oncology and its Strategy Forums; in this way, the session addresses the World Cancer Declaration Target 07: “Access to accurate cancer diagnosis, quality multimodal treatment, rehabilitation, supportive and palliative care services, including the availability of affordable essential medicines and technologies, will have improved."

Innovative medicines can drive improvements in cancer diagnostics and risk stratification as well as gains in survival and quality of survival in well-defined patient cohorts in adults with cancer and should be an integral part of quality multi-disciplinary cancer treatment in children and young people.

The ACCELERATE model demonstrates a transformational approach to international stakeholder co-operation to expand cancer drug development for children and adolescents and provide more equitable access to new medicines and offers important learning outcomes for stakeholders involved across all cancer speciality areas and age groups.