NCU has supported e.g. NORDCAN, the Summer School in Cancer Epidemiology, the Association of Nordic Cancer Registries along with many smaller projects.

NCU Board decided 3. December 2021 to support NORDCAN 2022 – 2024.

NORDCAN is a strategic tool for cancer incidence, mortality, prevalence and survival on comparable Nordic cancer data. It is a flagship for international and Nordic recognition of the NCU-ANCR collaboration used not only by researchers, but also by governments, policy makers, journalists, cancer organizations and patients.

Support from NCU for the period 2019-2021 has allowed NORDCAN to make a smooth transition from NORDCAN 1.0 with the secretariat in Denmark to NORDCAN 2.0 with the secretariat in Norway. During this period, in close cooperation with IARC, the Nordic cancer registries have established a new version of the NORDCAN webtool, developed an R/Stata-application for processing of data in each country and updated the NORDCAN database up to and including 2019. 2020 will be included in June 2022.

The next three years, NORDCAN will focus both on continuing the existing NORDCAN-cooperation, refine and further develop both the system for data preparation and flow (nordcan.R) and continue the important work on keeping NORDCAN a relevant source for different stakeholders. NORDCAN-plans for this period includes update of some cancer entities to make them more relevant and inclusion of quality tables, age-specific survival, survival based on Nordic standard and further discussions on stage/TNM.

Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of our time, and the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children in the Nordic countries is worrying. Children and youth with overweight and obesity have a higher risk of carrying these conditions into their adulthood. At the same time, there is strong evidence a high BMI increases the risk of at least 13 different cancers.

It is therefore of at most importance to prevent overweight and obesity among children and youth in the Nordic countries with particular focus on actions that will mitigate the societal and structural causes of overweight and obesity, and thereby reduce cancer risk and improve Nordic populations’ health and well-being in the future.

To that end, the Nordic Cancer Union is funding a three-year cooperation between the Nordic countries’ cancer societies with the aim of advocating for the implementation of a Nordic Action Plan for the prevention of overweight and obesity among children.

A work group rooted in the Nordic cancer societies will develop evidence-based recommendations for effective policy initiatives in the prevention of overweight and obesity among children and youth in the Nordic countries. A common Nordic survey will measure support for the implementation of such measures and policies in the Nordic countries.

The projects results and recommendations will be presented to members of the Nordic Council of Ministers and other relevant stakeholders in a public conference held in 2024.

Contact: Gitte Laub Hansen glh@cancer.dk mobile +45 30 65 10 14

The NCU Board allocated 200.000 euro for a Strategic research project on Covid-19 and cancer in the Nordic region in 2021 – 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all Nordic countries. In addition to the direct effects of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), preliminary data suggest that the pandemic has had an indirect impact on health, including the provision of timely cancer care. Cancer screening programs were temporarily stopped, delayed, or experienced reduced attendance, and cancer patients in general may have experienced delays in diagnostics and treatment. The magnitude of the COVID-19 impact on cancer diagnostics and care in the Nordic countries is currently unknown.

The project aims to estimate these effects.

Among those infected with SARS-CoV-2, evidence is conflicting on whether cancer patients are at higher risk than the general population of developing serious complications as reflected in hospitalizations, respiratory failure and death. Many of the first studies attempting to address these questions were based on case series or hospital-based collection of cases, precluding firm conclusions. Population-based data are needed to further clarify possible associations between cancer and COVID-19 outcomes.

The project aims to provide such data.

The project takes advantage of the Nordic cancer registry collaboration, the five Nordic population-based cancer registries, as well as other Nordic health registry data.

By combining high-quality population-based registry data from the Nordic countries a number of questions relating to COVID-19 and cancer will be adressed. The Nordic countries with a combined population of 27 million inhabitants provide an optimal setting for addressing outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For further information: Giske Ursin, Director and Professor, Cancer Registry of Norway, Ursin@kreftregisteret.no