Clinical oncology in resource-limited settings

Abstract

Infectious Agents and Cancer is introducing a new section of Clinical Oncology with the main objective of stimulating debate through articles published in the section. Infectious diseases have been the major causes of morbidity and mortality in human populations, and have dominated the medical approach to clinical and public health. Successful efforts to control mortality from acute infections have paved the way for chronic, mostly indolent, infections to become major causes of morbidity. Cancer, hitherto thought to be rare in resource-limited settings, is becoming a major contributor. The changes in mortality patterns are due, in part, to diseases linked to rapid changes in lifestyle, urbanization, and pollution. These diseases include many of the non-infection associated cancers. However, there is a dearth of information about the burden, pathogenesis, and therapeutic approaches about cancer in resource-limited countries. There are also substantial other challenges, including economic, infrastructure, technology, and personnel. The Journal advocates for interactive local–global (lo-bal) efforts to generate relevant knowledge about cancer burden, pathogenesis, and therapeutic approaches using a bottom-up approach to sharpen the focus on local and global relevance of research and clinical and public practice, particularly in resource-limited countries. The section on Clinical Oncology in Infectious Agents and Cancer will harness these “lo-bal” strategies to reduce substantially the time from concept, discovery, and development and implementation of locally and globally applicable diagnostic and therapeutic technologies.

Promoting Cancer Control in Africa With “Ubuntu”: A Report of the African Organization for Research and Training in Africa (AORTIC) 10th Conference, 2015 in Marrakech, Morocco

“…Introduction. Capacity building has been labeled as one area that is needed to upgrade the area of cancer prevention in Africa (Buonaguro et al, 2013;Adewole et al, 2014). Lawler-Heaver Janet of Westat, USA presented a poster titled "Epidemiology of Burkitt lymphoma in East African Children And Minors study builds research capacity in East Africa."…”

“…Capacity building has been labeled as one area that is needed to upgrade the area of cancer prevention in Africa (Buonaguro et al, ; Adewole et al, ). Lawler‐Heaver Janet of Westat, USA presented a poster titled “Epidemiology of Burkitt lymphoma in East African Children And Minors study builds research capacity in East Africa.” Lawler‐Heaver reported that through the NCI sponsored Burkitt lymphoma (BL) study through EMBLEM, 1500 cases and 3000 controls were enrolled in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.…”

Burkitt lymphoma research in East Africa: highlights from the 9th African organization for research and training in cancer conference held in Durban, South Africa in 2013

“…Moreover, the open access policy guarantees that published research can be accessed immediately via any internet connection. To increase access to authors from low and middle income countries (LMICs) and sharpen focus, the journal has added sections on Clinical Oncology [ 46 ] and Cancer Centers in Resource Limited Settings [ 47 ]. In addition, the journal routinely waives Article Publishing Charges for up to six articles submitted by scientists from LMICs who lack grant support for their publication.…”

Establishing of cancer units in low or middle income african countries: angolan experience - a preliminary report

“…Buonaguro FM et al underlined the lack of robust data from well-designed and well-conducted studies about establishing cancer units in resource-limited settings, which complicates forecasting [ 7 ].…”