Cancer Control in the state of São Paulo (ConeCta-SP): from knowledge to action

Abstract

The incidence and mortality from cancer have been continuously increasing in the world and also in the state of São Paulo, whose incidence rates are among the highest in the country and the disease is the second leading cause of death. This is the enormous challenge that we are trying to help face here. The research team made up of leading researchers in epidemiology and oncologic pathology, associated with professionals from the State Department of Health with a wide domain of the operational difficulties of the Unified Health System, as well as from researchers from universities, NGOs with experience in cancer communication, and from the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization (IARC/WHO), plans strategies that can, in a relatively short space of time, contribute to the effective control of cancer in the state. Axis 1 of the project is part of the World Health Organization's call for the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem, with the proposal to reduce the disease burden by 30% by 2030, and also to reduce mortality from breast cancer at 2.5% per year by 2040. To achieve these goals, there is an urgent need to implement effective screening for these two female tumors reaching broad population coverage. The challenges in the Brazilian and São Paulo state scenario include the historical lack of a culture of prevention, inequality in access to health care, the myths and stigmas of the community about cancer, all resulting in low coverage and failures in monitoring women, even where the screening services, diagnostic confirmation, and treatment are available. Therefore, the objective in Axis 1 is, through the full cycle of an implementation research, to structure organized, scalable, population-based screening programs for cervical and breast tumors. In Axis 2, six subprojects are proposed with the objective of using the large database (about 1 million cases) of the Hospital-based Cancer Registry of the state of São Paulo (HBCR/SP), coordinated by the FOSP, to develop research and generate relevant information on the most incident tumors for planning prevention and improving the quality of cancer care in the state. FOSP will be the headquarters of the CCD ConeCta-SP, since it is responsible for coordinating the State Program to Combat Cervical and Breast Cancer in São Paulo and also for coordinating the HBCR/SP. The communication area is essential in the project design in order to reach the target population for screening and also to disseminate the results throughout the health ecosystem and to society. (AU)