; the registry staff routinely visited all hospitals and pathological laboratories in eastern Libya (1.6 million inhabitants) and collected information from all death registration offices. A huge archive of prevalent cases was established before the 2003 data were collected. A total of 997 cases of primary cancers were registered among residents in 2003. The world age-standardized incidence rate for all sites combined (except nonmelanoma skin) was 118 per 100,000 for men and 95 per 100,000 for women. The most frequently diagnosed malignancies in males were lung cancer (19%) and colorectal cancer (10%), followed by cancers of the head and neck (9%) and bladder (9%). Among females, they were breast cancer (26%), cancer of the colon and rectum (9%), uterus (7%) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (5%). Our study provides data on cancer incidence in eastern Libya, and confirms that cancer incidence is much lower than in western countries. Moreover, observed patterns indicate that the incidence of many cancers, including those of the lung, breast, colon, rectum and bladder is quite different from previous estimates based on the data available from the neighboring countries. ' 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Key words: Benghazi; cancer; incidence; Libya; population-based registry Cancer will become an increasingly important health problem in developing countries in the coming decades. Growing and ageing populations, increasing tobacco consumption and exposure to other known risk factors (e.g., industrialization and westernization of diet and lifestyle) will all contribute to dramatically increase the number of new cancer cases, especially in African countries. 1,2 The establishment of several new cancer registries in Africa in the last 15 years 3-8 will provide more accurate statistics and help to improve both the monitoring of cancer trends over time and our understanding of this growing epidemic. Although cancer registration activity in Africa is growing rapidly, until now no cancer incidence data have been available for a defined population within Libya. 7,[9][10][11] In this paper, we report for the first time the statistics on cancer incidence from the population-based Benghazi Cancer Registry (BCR), which was established in 2002 under the auspices of the National Research Center and located in Garyounis University, in eastern Libya. Material and methodsThe BCR covers a wide area of northeastern Libya, on the Mediterranean Sea coast (Fig. 1). The total population, according to 2003 estimates, is 1,632,051 (approximately 28% of the total Libyan population), with a high proportion of children (age 0-14: 35%) and young adults (age 15-29: 32%), while people older than 65 years only account for less than 5% (Fig. 2). The city of Benghazi (660,147 estimated population) is the major center of the region.Cases were found by active searching in all hospitals in which cancer may be diagnosed. The Department of Pathology of Garyounis University, located in the city of Benghazi, is the most important source of information because it provides his...

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Over the past few decades, there has been growing support for the idea that cancer needs an interdisciplinary approach. Therefore, the international cancer community has developed several strategies as outlined in the WHO non-communicable diseases Action Plan (which includes cancer control) as the World Health Assembly and the UICC World Cancer Declaration, which both include primary prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, and palliative care. This paper highlights experiences/ideas in cancer control for international collaborations between low, middle, and high income countries, including collaborations between the European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) Member States, the Latin-American and Caribbean countries, and the Eastern Mediterranean countries. These proposals are presented within the context of the global vision on cancer control set forth by WHO in partnership with the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), in addition to issues that should be considered for collaborations at the global level: cancer survival (similar to the project CONCORD), cancer control for youth and adaptation of Clinical Practice Guidelines. Since cancer control is given lower priority on the health agenda of low and middle income countries and is less represented in global health efforts in those countries, EU and AU cancer stakeholders are working to put cancer control on the agenda of the EU-AU treaty for collaborations, and are proposing to consider palliative care, population-based cancer registration, and training and education focusing on primary prevention as core tools. A Community of Practice, such as the Third International Cancer Control Congress (ICCC-3), is an ideal place to share new proposals, learn from other experiences, and formulate new ideas. The aim of the ICCC-3 is to foster new international collaborations to promote cancer control actions in low and middle income countries. The development of supranational collaborations has been hindered by the fact that cancer control is not part of the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MGGs). As a consequence, less resources of development aids are allocated to control NCDs including cancer.