A European collaborative initiative to systematically map cancer risk by migration background: the Cancer RADAR...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Health Services Research

Background:

• The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes improved migration health governance and data-driven policies.
• A significant barrier in Europe is the absence of consistent, comparable cancer data for individuals with a migration background.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the availability of routine data for mapping and analyzing cancer risk differences among migrant populations in Europe.
• To develop a framework for collecting cancer data stratified by country of birth for specific cancer types (breast, colorectal, cervical, stomach, liver, lung).

Main Methods:

• Collaboration with pilot population-based cancer registries across Europe.
• Development of a framework to collect cancer data stratified by country of birth.
• Co-development of a protocol and analysis tool with pilot registries for data collection and protection (anonymization, aggregation).

Main Results:

• High feasibility: 60% of registries are able and willing to share data, with an additional 10% intending to retrieve and share data from 22 countries.
• Motivations for data sharing include reducing cancer inequalities and enhancing registry visibility.
• Barriers identified include time constraints, resource limitations, and the need for ethical/legal approval, especially for data linkage.

Conclusions:

• Cancer RADAR offers a collaborative framework for systematic, comparable cancer data collection by migration background across Europe.
• This framework is a crucial step towards standardized international comparisons.
• The initiative supports evidence-based policies to effectively address cancer inequalities in migrant populations.