Global Oncology maps worldwide cancer research
- By MedZine Redactie -
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The non-profit organisation Global Oncology (GO) has launched a website showing which cancer-related research projects and programs exist around the world. The individual registrations are shown on the Global Cancer Project Map that visualises cancer research is not restricted to western countries.
The majority of the seven hundred registered programs is situated in the United States and Europe, but also Africa and the Middle-East, for example, have contributed research projects. On the website one can see that Bangladeshi researchers are studying the prevention of arsenic-induced skin cancer and that Ugandan scientists are working with novel pathogen-associated cancers. Meanwhile, a retinoblastoma centre is being established in the Philippines and this is only a small selection.
"Before it was difficult or often impossible to find information about cancer projects or experts, especially in resource-limited settings", says GO co-founder Ami S. Bhatt, assistant professor at Stanford University. Her co-founder Franklin W. Huang, instructor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School explains: "We have the ambitious goal of providing access to every cancer research, care, and outreach program in the world through the map.”
According to the World Bank, a UN institution that provides loans to developing countries, only five percent of all cancer-related funding is committed to projects in developing countries. Even though Africa, Asia, Central and South America account for sixty percent of the total cancer incidence and seventy percent of all cancer deaths, as is reported by the WHO.
The instigators of the Global Cancer Project Map hope to reduce these disparities over time by enabling the share of resources. The interactive online database allows scientists not only to promote their own research, but also to profit from knowledge of their colleagues and establish new connections.
Sources: Global Cancer Project Mapand Eurekalert
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