News

CIS Anti-Cancer Association launches the website

12.07.2013

The Anti-Cancer Association of the Commonwealth of Independent States is now represented on the Internet – the website www.oncologyngo-cis.org is launched. The content of the website provides information on public organizations of the CIS member states, which take active part in cancer control activities and protection of the rights of cancer patients, as well as news and planned and past events.

The CIS Anti-Cancer Association was established on September 6, 2012 at the VII Congress of Oncologists and Radiologists of CIS that was held in Astana (Kazakhstan). The Association was joined by national public organizations of cancer patients from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. The main reason for the Association establishment was that public anti-cancer organizations, which are leaders in this field in their respective countries, recognized the need to consolidate efforts to address the situation with high cancer mortality rates in CIS member states.

At the VII Congress of Oncologists and Radiologists of CIS it was stated in particular that despite all the measures taken to improve the situation, our countries still did not succeed in achieving a significant reduction in mortality from the most common types of cancer. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Russia and Ukraine rank among top three countries with the highest cancer mortality in population. In many CIS countries high levels of cancer morbidity and mortality are associated with poor access to cancer diagnosis and imperfect systems of accounting and statistical analysis of epidemiological data. However, international experience shows that even taking into account different financial resources of the countries there is scope for considerable improvement in the treatment of cancer patients. In this regard, joining efforts of public, professional community and governments can provide a momentum for the improvement of situation with cancer in our countries.

Sharing best practices, joint participation in international expert projects, the implementation of joint activities, initiatives in the field of public-private partnership - this is only some of the measures that the Association intends to undertake in the near future.

"In the post-Soviet countries the availability of effective treatment is limited by medical, administrative, financial and information barriers," said Dmitry Borisov, candidate of biological sciences and executive director of the non-profit partnership "Equal Right to Life", which is one of members representing Russia in the CIS Anti-Cancer Association. "We understand very well how to work together and what to do in the near future to improve the availability of cancer treatment. It is important that positions of social organizations are fully supported by the medical community and are fully in line with international principles of solutions to these problems, recognized in the UN Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD), signed in September 2011, and in the WHO strategic plans."

At the moment the CIS Anti-Cancer Association consists of eleven public organizations. However, the members hope that the Association will grow rapidly, when other public organizations of the post-Soviet space, as well as professional and scientific ones join it.

The non-profit partnership “Equal Right to Life”, one of the leading Russian NGOs, which activities are aimed at improving the situation with cancer in Russia, assumed the role of coordination centre of the Association.