The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The minister of health has revealed in response to a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question on Friday that South Africa's National Cancer Registry has not been updated in nearly a decade.

A copy of the parliamentary reply is available upon request.

A cancer registry is supposed to capture up-to-date information about the occurrence and outcome of cancer within a particular population group. The very purpose of these registries - which are an internationally benchmarked tool - is that they record fresh data that can be used in research into the causes of cancer, and which can be utilised in providing analysis of cancer patterns. This, in turn, plays an important role in assessing present treatments and in developing new treatments against cancer. They are also of critical importance in financial planning for both private and public sector bodies. In the private sector in South Africa, medical aids, pharmaceutical companies, private hospital groups and life insurance companies all require cancer registry information, while in the public sector, the departments of health, finance and home affairs all need information for the purposes of public policy making and funding allocations.

The question, therefore, is why has South Africa's Cancer Registry not been updated since 2001?

It makes no sense at all for there to be an internationally accepted best practice in dealing with research and funding allocations for cancer, and for South Africa to have such an institution in place, and yet at the same time for that institution to simply fail to operate.

South Africa is critically in need of up-to-date information on cancer trends. For instance, simply relying on decade-old South African data, or even on more recent foreign data, in allocating funding towards cervical cancer research, would in all likelihood be inadequate because cervical cancer is usually caused by a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, which is in turn linked with social behavioural trends like the prevalence of contraceptive usage. This changes over time, and is not the same in South Africa as it is in, say, the United States. South Africa therefore cannot rely on old information, or trend data from abroad, to make sure we're getting our cancer funding models right. We need the most recent information for our own population, and I believe the minister must appear before the portfolio committee on health to set out when this register will be updated, and why it has remained stagnant for almost a decade now.

One in three people are affected by cancer during their lifetime. It is essential that South Africa leads the way in cancer treatment and research, rather than lagging behind international best practice.