Cross city project

Global coalition for cancer diagnostics

Foster the development of a global coalition for cancer diagnostics

Project lead

Areas of action

Leadership and governance

Implementation

Cycle I

The challenge

A complete, timely and accurate diagnosis is vital when deciding the most suitable treatment plan for a cancer patient. But in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the barriers to effective treatment-planning are often compounded by difficulties in securing the right information about a patient at the right time, and solutions are often deployed in a siloed fashion.

The goal

To create a global coalition to identify both gaps and overlaps in diagnostics, and thus better coordinate diagnostic professionals in LMICs. This coalition can remove system-level barriers to diagnostic access, and develop and/or scale solutions tailored to local realities.

How

The Global Coalition for Cancer Diagnostics is a public-private initiative designed to create a global ecosystem of partners, including diagnostic organisations, civil society, local innovators and advanced start-ups, dedicated to identifying, enabling and accelerating the sustainable development of cancer diagnostic solutions and technologies to support LMICs.
The coalition responds to the call for more inclusive, targeted coalitions where all actors work together—governments, civil society, the private sector and healthcare professionals—to drive action towards equitable access to cancer diagnostics.

Outputs

Coalition of local and global partners to advance social innovation.
Awareness-raising about the importance of multisectoral approaches to advance innovative solutions for timely and accurate diagnostics in cancer care.

Impact and Achievements

Eight leading diagnostics companies, as well as four civil society organisations, came together at the World Cancer Congress in Geneva to create a forum of global diagnostics leaders. A number of solutions for fragmentation of diagnostics were discussed and developed during the forum.

One of the most important things we’ve learned from working to implement cancer diagnostics in low-income settings is that to achieve real change, we need to start with an assessment that gives us an in-depth understanding of the local context, including its gaps and needs—because what works in one part of the world doesn’t necessarily translate to another, say in Africa.

Dr Dan Milner

Chief Medical Officer at American Society for Clinical Pathology