Akhtar Faheem
Health Department Punjab, Corresponding Member of International Medical Informatics Association, Pakistan.
Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2007 Jul-Sep;8(3):452-6.
An estimated 7.6 million mortalities were attributed to cancers in 2005 across the globe, and the figures keep mounting. The existing prevalence rate for all reportable cancers is at 25 million, projected to ascend to 30 million around year 2020. Some 70% of these will burden the health care services in under-resourced countries. However, reliable statistics on the incidence, prevalence, mortality and survival rates (five and ten year) are limited. A National Cancer Control Program (NCCP) in Pakistan has existed since 1994, but little is known to the public and negligible information has been made available to medical services providers. We have a poverty of local bio-medical literature related to the specialties like oncology and cancer epidemiology. Only 175 papers are indexed by Pakmedinet, seven being relevant to the cancer registration in Pakistan, an impetus for programmed documentation, and to serve as a foundation for approach to Cyber-medicine. Infrastructure and ample requisite manpower exists locally and a number of local institutions as well as outside sources are teaming up. However, there are still quite a few issues to be looked into, including the question of who will own the data arising from this pooling of assets? A community-based approach is mandatory to allay public concerns over confidentiality and possible use of the registry data. Already, there are hurdles in attaining public approval after the intentions to found a National Cancer Registry were ventilated by the Pakistan Medical Research Council.
2005年，全球估计有760万人死于癌症，而且这一数字还在不断攀升。目前所有可报告癌症的患病率为2500万，预计到2020年左右将升至3000万。其中约70%将给资源匮乏国家的医疗服务带来负担。然而，关于发病率、患病率、死亡率和生存率（五年和十年）的可靠统计数据有限。巴基斯坦自1994年起就有了国家癌症控制计划（NCCP），但公众对此知之甚少，向医疗服务提供者提供的信息也微乎其微。我们缺乏与肿瘤学和癌症流行病学等专业相关的本地生物医学文献。巴基斯坦医学网（Pakmedinet）仅索引了175篇论文，其中7篇与巴基斯坦的癌症登记有关，这是进行程序化文献记录的动力，并为网络医学方法奠定基础。当地有基础设施和充足的必要人力，一些当地机构以及外部资源正在合作。然而，仍有不少问题需要研究，包括谁将拥有资产整合产生的数据这一问题？必须采取基于社区的方法来消除公众对保密性和登记数据可能用途的担忧。在巴基斯坦医学研究理事会表达了建立国家癌症登记处的意向后，在获得公众认可方面已经存在障碍。
