Donate now
EN FR
24 March 2022

An international consensus on the essential and desirable criteria for an ‘organized’ cancer screening programme

Scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), supported by global experts, have established a set of harmonized criteria for organizing cancer screening programmes, to assist programme managers in prioritizing interventions and resources. The criteria, consolidated based on a systematic review of practices by 24 international experts, are presented in a new article published in the journal BMC Medicine.

There is currently considerable heterogeneity in the definition and practice of organized cancer screening programmes. This leads to confusion among the stakeholders who are responsible for planning, implementing, and improving the quality of screening programmes.

The expert review panel considered 32 criteria for cancer screening programmes, extracted from various publications, to describe or define organized cancer screening. The experts deemed 16 of these criteria to be essential and 8 to be desirable for conducting a well-organized cancer screening programme.

The harmonized criteria are a ready-to-use guide for programme managers and policy-makers to implement or aspire to meet in order to run better-organized and impactful screening programmes. This new approach improves upon the existing dichotomous and simplistic approach of categorizing programmes as either “organized” or “non-organized”, which does not provide sufficient insight into the complex interplay of determinants of success.

Zhang L, Carvalho AL, Mosquera I, Wen T, Lucas E, Sauvaget C, et al.
An international consensus on the essential and desirable criteria for an ‘organized’ cancer screening programme
BMC Medicine, Published online 23 March 2022;
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02291-7

Read the article 

 

Publication status

Published in section: IARC News

Publication date: 24 March, 2022, 10:54

Direct link: https://www.iarc.who.int/news-events/an-international-consensus-on-the-essential-and-desirable-criteria-for-an-organized-cancer-screening-programme/

© Copyright International Agency on Research for Cancer 2024

Other news