Health Sciences Communications
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322

Release date: Nov. 8, 999
Contact: Sarah Goodwin, Director, 404-727-3366 or sgoodwi@emory.edu.

Public Health Professors Track Cancer in the Global Village

Epidemiology faculty members John Young, Ph.D., and Steven Roffers, P.A., are passionate about improving and increasing collection of cancer data worldwide. They serve as consultants to health ministries on several continents, offering advice on the establishment of tumor registries and surveillance systems or the enhancement of existing registries.

Since joining the faculty of the Rollins School of Public Health in early 1998, the researchers have staged cancer registration training programs in China, India, Egypt, Jordan, Bolivia, Cyprus and Palestine. The first overseas course they offered through Emory was particularly poignant. In summer 1998, Israeli Jews and Christians came together with Palestinian Muslims at Bethlehem University on the West Bank to fight what they deemed a common enemy: cancer.

The objectives of collecting and analyzing cancer statistics are to identify trends, notice unusual patterns and pinpoint their causes, and direct prevention efforts where they are needed. In fact, the data they collect will be vital for authoritative cancer information in the future, even making its way into "Cancer Incidence in Five Continents." Dr. Young co-edits the text, which is the definitive source for global cancer statistics. Only through this process did Dr. Young uncover, for instance, the interesting fact that black men in Atlanta have the world's highest incidences of prostate cancer while black men in certain parts of Africa have the lowest.

Further information on the international training programs is available at the following web address: http://www.sph.emory.edu/GCCS/training/index.html.

Return to Archived International Releases