The incidence of cancer is rising rapidly, with a global projection of 27 million cases annually by 2040 (1). Over 70% of these will arise in low and middle-income countries. A National Cancer Control Plan (NCCP) is a document aiming to meet the strategic goals and support implementation of national cancer programmes (2). The development, implementation and evaluation of a NCCP is imperative for comprehensive cancer control. The 2017 World Health Assembly Resolution (WHA 70.12) endorsed the development of NCCPs globally and highlighted the need for equity (3).
Until recently, a comprehensive tool to facilitate the develop and/or appraisal of NCCPs has not been available. This presentation will outline the steps taken in the creation of an evidence-based comprehensive checklist to support NCCP formulation and quality assessment. The tool features 111 items over 12 core domains, spanning the entire cancer continuum (2). This tool was utilised for a large-scale global analysis of NCCP quality (4), which identified several areas which were under-represented.
Radiotherapy is an important, cost-effective component of comprehensive cancer control. An urgent action of the Global Task Force for Radiotherapy in Cancer control was for the inclusion of radiotherapy in 80% of NCCPs by 2020(5). This presentation will outline the proportion of NCCPs globally which include radiotherapy planning, as assessed by the quality checklist tool. The differences with regards to radiotherapy inclusion in NCCPs and geographical region as well as country-level income groupings will also be discussed. Areas of further investigation and development in this space will be highlighted.