CanReg in Moshi, Tanzania (8-12 January)
An one week in-house CanReg consultancy/training took place in Moshi, Tanzania. Staff from the Kilimanjaro Cancer Registry and registrar Franco Afyusisye from the Mwanza Cancer Registry were tutored by Mr Francis Okongo (Gulu CR, Uganda). This consultancy/training objectives included inspection and evaluation to the CanReg5 system in both registries; ensuring the dictionaries match the national standards; repairing and improving the system in KCMC and merging any existing databases from CanReg5 as well as tackling actual problems encountered by the registries. This training was sponsored by Bloomberg Foundation, as part of the Tanzania National Cancer Registration programme.
Training in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire (22Jan-2Feb)
A 10 day training course on childhood cancer registration methods (including coding and staging) was held in Abidjan Cote d’Ivoire (22Jan-2Feb). The course was attended by cancer registrars from the Ouagadougou cancer registry (Burkina Faso) and the Brazzaville cancer registry (Congo). The course was funded by the Sanofi Espoir Foundation, as part of the AFCRN l’enregistrement du cancer de l’enfance project.
This training course was funded by Espoir Sanofi Foundation, as part of the AFCRN l’enregistrement du cancer de l’enfance project.
Training in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (5-23 March)
5-23 March, Mr Marcel Egue (Cotonou Cancer Registry) conducted a two weeks onsite training on cancer registration and use of CanReg to the Ouagadougou cancer registry staff. This training was requested by the local staff following their training in January (mentioned above). The aim was to help them to enhance their knowledge and skills in cancer registration as a whole as well as some questions raised after the initial training. The outcome of this training was also reviewed by Dr Parkin during his visit 18-21 March.
Trainings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (16-27th April)
AFCRN, in collaboration with the Tanzania Ministry of Health and the Vital Strategies team, organised two training workshops in Dar es Salaam. Dr Parkin and Dr Marion Pineros (IARC) conducted a two day workshop (16-17), designed for cancer registry directors, on the principles and uses of population based cancer registration.
18-27, an eight and a half day training course was delivered to a team of 12 registrars from the registries in Dodoma, Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, Mwanza and Moshi. This practical training course was designed to meet the needs of junior registrars and registry support staff working in African cancer registries.
Training in Harare, Zimbabwe (28May-1June)
28May-1June, a 4.5 days training course on childhood cancer registration took place in Harare. The course included classification of childhood cancer, the recording of stage, using the manual developed for use by African cancer registries, based on the “Toronto” system (as in the latest TNM Manual), and of follow up for calculation of survival. 8 students from Uganda, Zambia, Swaziland and Bulawayo (Zim) attended.
Training course on Essential TNM (26-29th Nov)
A four days training course on use of Essential TNM and the Toronto consensus guidelines for paediatric cancers took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The course included sessions on the principles of cancer pathology and spread, and on staging systems currently in use. 17 students from 16 registries in 14 SSA countries took part. The participants were asked to assign a UICC/AJCC stage (I-IV) to each case; then following training, they were asked to code T, N and M for each case. An evaluation exercise has been performed - results show significant improvement in participants' performance after training on the Essential TNM staging system.