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Building capacity for sustainable research programmes for cancer in Africa

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 11, pages 251–259 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Key Points

  • Research has a pivotal role in cancer control planning as it will lead to the development of evidence-based strategies for cancer prevention and control relevant to Africa

  • Cancer research programmes should be multi-disciplinary and contain a research–career component for the development of African scientists as research leaders and mentors, which will lead to sustainable research programmes

  • International funding agencies and pharmaceutical companies should support the creation of long-term funding to foster rigorous and innovative investigator-initiated research

  • The formation of North–South and South–South partnerships and networks is essential for the creation of the infrastructure and environment needed to promote research

  • African scientists should engage country communities and policy-makers to promote community and country ownership of research programmes

  • Cancer research should be accompanied by the highest levels of ethical, legal and socially appropriate standards to ensure the protection of patients

Abstract

Cancer research in Africa will have a pivotal role in cancer control planning in this continent. However, environments (such as those in academic or clinical settings) with limited research infrastructure (laboratories, biorespositories, databases) coupled with inadequate funding and other resources have hampered African scientists from carrying out rigorous research. In September 2012, over 100 scientists with expertise in cancer research in Africa met in London to discuss the challenges in performing high-quality research, and to formulate the next steps for building sustainable, comprehensive and multi-disciplinary programmes relevant to Africa. This was the first meeting among five major organizations: the African Organisation for Research and Training in Africa (AORTIC), the Africa Oxford Cancer Foundation (AfrOx), and the National Cancer Institutes (NCI) of Brazil, France and the USA. This article summarizes the discussions and recommendations of this meeting, including the next steps required to create sustainable and impactful research programmes that will enable evidenced-based cancer control approaches and planning at the local, regional and national levels.

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Figure 1: Capacity building framework for cancer research in Africa.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all of the attendees of the “Cancer in Africa: building transnational research collaborations” for their tremendous contribution to the discussions during the meeting.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obsterics and Gynecology, Gynecologic Oncology Unit, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, PMB 5017, Ibadan, GPO, Nigeria

    Isaac Adewole

  2. National Institutes of Health, USA

    Damali N. Martin, Makeda J. Williams, Sam M. Mbulaiteye & Edward L. Trimble

  3. University of Maryland School of Medicine, USA

    Clement Adebamowo

  4. National Cancer Institute, USA

    Kishor Bhatia

  5. Institut National du Cancer, France

    Christine Berling

  6. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, USA

    Corey Casper

  7. Mansoura University, Egypt

    Karima Elshamy

  8. Suez Canal University, Egypt

    Ahmed Elzawawy

  9. ARC-NET Cancer Research Centre, Italy

    Rita T. Lawlor

  10. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK

    Rosa Legood

  11. University of Florida, USA

    Folakemi T. Odedina

  12. Center for Global Health, USA

    Olufunmilayo I. Olopade & Christopher O. Olopade

  13. African Cancer Registry Network, UK

    Donald M. Parkin

  14. University of Pennsylvania, USA

    Timothy R. Rebbeck

  15. American Cancer Society, USA

    Hana Ross

  16. Instituto Nacional de Câncer, Brazil

    Luiz A. Santini

  17. Union for International Cancer Control, Switzerland

    Julie Torode

  18. International Agency for Research on Cancer, France

    Christopher P. Wild

  19. University of Warwick, UK

    Annie M. Young

  20. University of Oxford, UK

    David J. Kerr

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Contributions

I.A., D.N.M., M.J.W., C.A., K.B., C.B., C.C., C.P.W. and D.J.K. researched data for article. I.A., D.N.M., M.J.W., C.A., C.C., S.M.M., F.T.O., O.I.O., C.O.O., D.M.P., T.R.R., H.R., J.T., C.P.W. and A.M.Y. made a substantial contribution to discussion of content. I.A., D.N.M., M.J.W., C.A., C.B., C.C., R.L., S.M.M., F.T.O., O.I.O., D.M.P., T.R.R., H.R., L.A.S., J.T., C.P.W. and A.M.Y. wrote the article; and all authors reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Isaac Adewole.

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Adewole, I., Martin, D., Williams, M. et al. Building capacity for sustainable research programmes for cancer in Africa. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 11, 251–259 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.37

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