AORTIC 2011, Cairo, Egypt 30 November–2 December 2011
Smoking control as a means of preventing cancer
Dr Joe Harford – National Cancer Institute, Maryland, USA
There’s been a lot of emphasis on how we can use cell phones or Twitter accounts or whatever to do cancer control, and I’m sure there’s merit to some of those things but in the end it’s having trained people. So the NCI for the past fifteen years or so has been engaged in training in cancer prevention in particular, including quite a number of folks from Africa, in the basic principles of cancer prevention.
The biggest single preventative measure that one can engage in is tobacco control. So the smoking prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa in particular is actually quite low by comparison to the rest of the world. Africans in sub-Saharan Africa smoke a lot less than do Europeans or even Americans at this point, but that hasn’t escaped the notice of the tobacco industry so they are doing very aggressive marketing with Africa as a target for tobacco, and I think it’s useful for Africans to be prepared in the area of cancer prevention and in particular tobacco control.
Does this involve lobbying against the tobacco industry?
Well lobbying is one thing, and looking at all of the issues having to do with tobacco control. It’s a complex issue in one sense but because there is the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control - really the only international treaty ever engaged in on cancer - it has a number of steps that one can go, anything from to raising taxes, which would require lobbying, to setting up quit lines and things that wouldn’t necessarily require lobbying.
What were their conclusions?
Well although cancer is relatively low in Africa compared to the rest of the world now, it’s on the rise, as are other non-communicable diseases. So that Africa is in a period of transition between infectious diseases and the non-communicable diseases including cancer. Right now they are experiencing what has been called by some a double burden where they still have HIV, AIDS and malaria and things to do deal with, but at the same time cancer, diabetes, heart disease are on the rise. So, because this is a cancer specific meeting and I come from The National Cancer Institute, I was focusing mainly on the preparation for the tsunami of cancer that’s around the corner.
Are there any projects you are currently involved with?
We have an initiative called BIG CAT which is an NCI grant program for beginning investigators, BIG CAT stands for Beginning Investigator Grants for Catalytic Research, and we have six investigators in Africa that we funded with small amounts of money to do pilot studies. The catalytic part refers to the fact that we are expecting this to lead to other funding going forward. And then in a few minutes I’ll be giving a talk on paediatric oncology, childhood cancers, and the statistics and what not on that.
What grants were these researchers given?
It was $25,000 per year for up to two years, so $50,000 altogether, and there were six of them. So a modest investment in research in Africa but, again, intending that it be catalytic and that they be able to secure other funding with the preliminary data that they are getting using this money. Then they could apply for NIH grants, they could apply for grants to the MRC in the UK or to the European Union if they have some program that involves co-operation with Europe.
