Progress of the Cancer registration in Greece

1. Progress of the Cancerregistration in Greece Renee Otter WP5 leader

2. Health Strategies in Europe. Lisbon, 12-13 July 2006. Coleman M. Health Strategies in Europe. Lisbon, 12-13 July 2006. Coleman M.

3. EUROCHIP 3 WP5 • In 2008 no cancer registry in Greece • Aim of EUROCHIP: • Support Greece polically and scientifically in starting the CR mainly by exchanging expertise through meetings, phone and mails

4. Steps undertaken (1) • 2006 :1st collaboration between EUROCHIP-2 and KEELPNO • 13th of june 2008: Central Health Committee recognized the relevance of a Cancer registry • March 2009: meeting EUROCHIP-3 WP5 & KEELPNO to contribute to the ongoing development of het national CR

5. Meeting 2009: points discussed • The need for a Document describing all the issues concerning the CR • Sources and items to be collected • Training of CR personnel • Pilot registry

6. Update • Document: • No official document available on the PB CR • But a national cancer plan has been developed with 5 main issues and 1 of these is the CR (KEELPNO newsletter March 2011) • Training personnel • September 2009: one week training at the IKNL focussing on the different topics • Attendance to the EUROCOURSE meeting • Pilot registry has never been undertaken

7. However • HCR develop a mission and a purpose: • Todevelop, operate and constantly improve the national population-based mechanism for registering all new and metastatic cancer cases throughout Greece, reported by primary and  secondary sources of the public and private networks. • Todevelop, operate and constantly improve the mechanisms for evaluation, assessment and proper dissemination of collected data and related results

8. With the aim of complete cancer case registration and reliable population-based results, data will be collected by all public and private hospitals in Greece (140 in total), as instructed by the recent ministerial decisions (numbers 136216/9-12-2011 and 1010/12-2011). • Data collection will be carried out by health officials, in particular health visitors, already employed as permanent hospital (and private clinics) staff that have already been nominated as ‘cancer registrars’.

9. Cancer registrars will work closely with the members of the oncology committees of the public hospitals and private clinics. • Cancer registrars will be connected directly to and liaise with the HCR in KEELPNO for continuous training, education and support. • For the first 2 years, the registrars will be trained on a regular basis and educational seminars will run for each health region, roughly every 6 months.

10. Cancer registration will be made online with strict ground-rules to secure the privacy and safety of personal and health-sensitive data; • The necessary tools for registration: • the ‘registration form of malignant or marginally malignant neoplasm’ available (on EUROCHIP website) • The corresponding software for online data registration have been developed in co-operation with the KEELPNO experts committee for HCR. • The aforementioned tools will be tested during the first phase of the system’s application and improvements made as necessary.

11. The program officially commenced on February 1st, 2012 where a congress took place in Athens and 80% of the registrars attended. • A workshop was organized to present the notification form and the web-based software. A manual with details for the registration and a manual for the use of the software were handed out to the registrars. • ICD-O-3 has been translated in Greek and is about to be published. • Funding for the first 2 years has been obtained by the National Strategic Reference Network (NSRF) 2007–2013 program.

12. Proposals to HCR • Quality checks next year by IACR • Keep in contact with ENCR and IACR concerning the consultancy requirements • Helpdesk on coding problems available at the IKNL