UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

“Not enough is being done to stem the global tide of cancer-related illness and death. Sharing knowledge and learning together internationally will be the key factor in slowing the growth of the worldwide cancer epidemic in the 21st century.” Such was the message heard at the 1st International Cancer Control Congress (ICCC) October 23 – 26, 2005.

Methods:

In plenary sessions and focused workshop discussions, leading experts on cancer control made presentations, shared models and explored case studies. The vision of the Congress was to bring together the world's best scientific minds in the field of cancer control to share what they know, what works and what doesn't culminating with suggestions of how to best build an international community of practice:

Results:

The Congress report on participant feedback indicated overwhelming support for a second Congress, in particular one that was located in the Southern Hemisphere focused more on the needs and interests of low resource countries. The ICCC feedback report also indicated that this global forum achieved its objectives of sharing strategies, highlighting needed activities and gaps, increasing regular networking and collaboration and laying the foundation for the development of an international community of practice

In this presentation, a synthesis of Congress discussions calling attention to the critical success factors, key insights, research gaps will be presented; next steps in the development of a global community of practice for Cancer Control will be described; existing and new tools in development will be discussed to support virtual collaboration for cancer control.