IACR Newsflash
New ENCR Representative to IACR
Following the end of term of Dr. Michael Eden (Public Health England) at the Steering Committee of the European Network of Cancer Registries (ENCR), it is our pleasure to announce to the IACR Membership that Dr. Volker Arndt has been appointed as the new ENCR Representative for IACR. As ENCR Representative, Dr Arndt joins the IACR Board of Directors.
Dr Volker Arndt is currently the Director of Epidemiological Cancer Registry Baden-Württemberg, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany and also serves as Head of Unit of Cancer Survivorship, German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg.
Welcome to the IACR Board, Dr Volker Arndt and many thanks to Michael Eden!
Dr Jacques Estève: A Tribute
We at IACR announce the passing of our colleague Dr. Jacques Estève who passed away on 20 February 2022.
He was a titan in the field of descriptive epidemiology, and continues to have a huge influence on our daily work. Dr Estève worked at the IARC from 1977 served as its Head of Biostatistics Research and Informatics. He was a remarkable mathematician and described new methods to calculate cancer survival and to estimate national cancer incidence rates using national and regional cancer mortality data. Dr Estève edited or made important contributions to many of IARC's Scientific Publications, most notably:
- Trends in Cancer Incidence and Mortality;
- Statistical Methods in Cancer Research Volume IV: Descriptive Epidemiology);
- Survival of Cancer Patients in Europe: The EUROCARE Study.
Read IARC's obituary here.
Prof Charles Gombe Mbalawa
It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of our dear friend and colleague, Professor Charles Gombe Mbalawa, at the CHU de Brazzaville on 20th April 2021 at the age of 70 years.
Professor Charles was the founder of the Cancer Registry of Brazzaville in 1995, and its Director until his retirement in 2015. IACR closely worked with him when he served in the Editorial Board of Cancer Incidence in Five Continents (CI5) Volume X. He several books, including La transformation d'un Hôpital (2012), Esprit de Cancérologue (2019), Particularités Africaines de la Cancérologie (2020).
Many of you will also know of him as a pioneer of oncology in Francophone Africa. He founded the oncology service at Brazzaville University Hospital and served as its head until he retired. Among his many roles were Director of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire of Brazzaville (1991-1995) and Rector of the University Marien-Ngouabi University, the first public higher education establishment in the Congo.
Charles Gombé Mbalawa studied medicine and cancerology in France after obtaining the baccalaureate in 1969. In 2008, he was honored with the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor by France.
He will be sadly missed by all of us.
With thanks to Biying Liu, AFCRN for the photo of Prof. Charles.
Un des hommages publiés en français dans l'actualité congolaise:https://lesechos-congobrazza.com/societe/7858-congo-sante-le-professeur-charles-gombe-mbalawa-s-en-est-alle
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Haematological Malignancies in Belgium, 2004-2018
Our colleagues at the Belgian Cancer Registry (BCR) are pleased to share their new E-book publication, Haematological Malignancies - Belgium 2004-2018.
This publication is the result of close collaboration between the BCR and the Belgian Hematology Society (BHS) and of a partnership with the Belgian Society of Paediatric Haematology Oncology (BSPHO).
This e-book describes the epidemiological situation of haematological malignancies in Belgium for 15 consecutive years of incidence data. In addition to results on incidence, prevalence, 5-year survival and trends as presented in the last publication on haematological malignancies in 2015, this new publication will also include incidence projections until 2025 and 10-year relative survival for the main haematological subtypes.
The E-book can be downloaded through this link:
The e-book is available through the link here: HM 20014-2018 E-Book
or through the BCR's Publications page.
IACR congratulates our colleagues at the Belgian Cancer Registry and the clinical societies they worked with to produce this impressive report.
Prof John L. Young: A Tribute
With deep sadness, NAACCR and IACR announce the passing of our colleague, IACR Honorary Member, Dr. John L Young Jr. on 11 March 2021.
He served as IACR General Secretary in 1983 -1986 and President in 1996 - 1999.
John is considered to be the “father” of cancer surveillance in North America and instrumental to establishing and advancing the principles of this field worldwide. While serving in the Public Health Service, he was employed at the National Cancer Institute 50 years ago during the establishment of the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program. Working with Charles Smart, William Haenzel, Sidney Cutler, and Constance Percy, among others, John defined the rules and standard operating procedures for the SEER Program, and ultimately the nation and the world. He also worked closely with Calum Muir and Max Parkin at the International Association of Cancer Registries (IACR), serving as President, as an editor of Cancer in Five Continents (Volume VII), and as an advisor to population based registries worldwide. 
Through this work, the first standardized and aggregated cancer incidence data were published on a national and international scale, leading to the foundation of descriptive cancer epidemiology and the study of regional variation in cancer incidence. He led the SEER Program until retiring from the Public Health Service in the late 1980s when he moved to California to lead the establishment of the Greater California Cancer Registry with others such as Don Austin and Dee West. During his tenure in California, John played a pivotal role in the establishment of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR), and served as its first President. In the 1990s John joined the faculty of Emory University in Atlanta and served as the Director of the Atlanta SEER registry, and as an advisor to the National Program of Cancer Registries at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More important than all of these significant achievements and contributions to the science of cancer surveillance, John served as a mentor and advisor to us all. Without text books or formal training programs in cancer registration and cancer surveillance John shared his knowledge and opinions freely guiding hundreds of cancer surveillance professionals. His tag line about data quality, “Purification Through Use”, still resonates with us today. John was cancer surveillance’s equivalent of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Finally, John will be remembered as a man with an enormous heart, generous spirit and witty sense of humor. John dearly loved his family, friends and colleagues and found many ways to enrich our lives both professionally and privately. He will be sorely missed and long remembered as friend, a mentor, and for his positive influence on us all.
