The Tanzanian Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. David Mwakyusa, opened the first meeting of the national Cancer Control Steering Committee, which took place at Ocean Road Cancer Institute (Dar es Salaam) on 20 and 21 August.
The 13 members of the Steering Committee have the responsibility to develop the national cancer control strategy, and to identify specific activities for the strategy's action plan.
The Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT) facilitated the meeting through Ms Maria Stella de Sabata, PACT Cancer Control Specialist, and Dr K.A. Dinshaw, director of Tata Memorial Hospital (Mumbai, India).
Outcomes and timelines for the next 6 months have been agreed upon by the Steering Committee, and 8 working groups on several areas of cancer control have been established:
- registration
- prevention
- early detection and diagnosis
- treatment
- palliative care
- training, education and research
- cancer society building
- human resources development
The Steering Committee was also represented at the joint INCTR-PACT-supported Focused Workshop on cancer control in East Africa, which followed on 22-24 August.
Tanzania is one of PACT's six Model Demostration Sites (PMDS) projects.