Cancer Control: Putting Science into Practice

OBJECTIVES:

The student will:

  1. Understand the World Health Organization’s (WHO) public health model for national cancer control;
  2. Understand how prevention interventions help to control the incidence of cancer in a country;
  3. Understand how early diagnosis and screening link with treatment to reduce mortality for oral, cervical and breast cancers, and understand the concept of downstaging;
  4. Understand the role of treatment with surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy in cancer control;
  5. Understand the nature and use of palliative care to reduce the suffering of terminal cancer.

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

In planning national cancer control programs an essential skill is the ability to use epidemiological data about cancer to recommend a prescription of interventions for an appropriate national cancer control program for a country.

The student will be able to:

  1. Design the basis for an appropriate set of interventions to control cancer in a country.

RECOMMENDED TEXT

National Cancer Control Programmes. Policies and Managerial Guidelines. World Health Organization, Geneva 1995. ISBN 92-4-154474-0. The lecture follows this text closely. It can be ordered from Distribution & Sales, World Health Organization, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland at Sw. fr. 32.- (Sw. fr. 22.40 in developing countries).

Unless otherwise noted, the information in this lecture is summarized and adapted from this text.

PREREQUISITE

The student should be familiar with the material in lecture one of this series entitled Cancer: A Global Concern. The Epidemiology of Cancer. It can be found at:

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