Now Available! Report from Paris Conference for International Childhood Cancer Partnership

On February 15th, International Childhood Cancer Day, we are proud to announce the release of the final report from the Paris Conference for an International Childhood Cancer Partnership.

Pediatric cancers, as a group, represent a host of heterogeneous rare diseases including ultra rare cancers with only a few cases diagnosed in each country annually. This heterogeneity and sample size limitation leads to a scarcity of data for each type of tumor pathology. This scarcity, in turn, considerably constrains the capacity of research efforts to elucidate the mechanisms underpinning these cancers and develop effective treatments.

It has become unequivocally clear that no single country possesses enough data on children to conduct the depth and breadth of research necessary to support research on these rare and ultra-rare tumors.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and French National Cancer Institute (INCa) recently co-sponsored the Paris Conference for an International Childhood Cancer Data Partnership, a two-day in-person working meeting to address complex challenges in pediatric cancer research and data sharing. NAACCR has been providing support on NCI efforts related to this initiative. The meeting, held in Paris, from November 7-8, 2023, took place within the framework of the G7 Cancer Initiative and had institutional support from the European Commission.

The Paris Conference convened 210 participants from a wide spectrum of disciplines in pediatric oncology, including cancer registry leaders and staff, clinicians, data scientists, and epidemiologists from institutions in 17 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, United Kingdom, and United States).

This report aims to distill the discussions and collective wisdom shared during these two days, paving the way for an international data sharing initiative—a collaborative endeavor on an international scale, setting the stage for concerted efforts to advance pediatric cancer research and treatment globally.