Revival of Cancer Registration in Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

Effective national level cancer registration system does not exist in Pakistan (Qureshi et al., 2015). It has always been a matter of concern for all stakeholders within the country as well as amongst relevant international authorities. Unfortunately, no minimal and inefficacious efforts have been made in the past by the policy makers in Pakistan to facilitate the establishment of a nationwide functional cancer registration authority. However, regional cancer registries have substantially contributed towards establishing cancer statistics in Pakistan. One such regional cancer registry was the Karachi Cancer Registry (KCR) which was founded by Dr. Yasmin Bhurgri and published several reports detailing cancer patterns from Karachi South. However, after the death of Dr. Yasmin, the KCR went practically nonfunctional until recently when it was revived by a group of relevant stakeholders from various institutions in Karachi.