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Improving access to cancer care with City Cancer Challenge

A boy sits on a chair in a hospital hallway, looking around with a thoughtful expression.

(Updated September 2024)

Overcoming barriers to access in cancer care

Currently, over half of the world’s population lives in cities, with 95% of urban expansion in the next decades anticipated to take place in developing countries. As people continue to move to urban environments the world over, this brings an additional challenge of sustainable healthcare infrastructure and planning to national and local governments. 

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, with 70% of mortalities occurring in Low-and low-middle-income countries (LMIC). Health systems are struggling to respond to a rising cancer burden, with an urgent need for timely diagnosis, standardisation of care, improved data systems, health financing, and a specialised workforce.

Supporting partners in establishing equitable access to quality cancer care

Roche has taken a lead role in an exciting partnership with o support cities across the globe in their efforts to improve equitable access to quality cancer care.

Since its launch in 2017 by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), C/Can has developed a new model of addressing access to cancer care that, for the first time, leverages the city as a key enabler in a health system’s response to cancer. The approach is built on the core principle that cities can drive impact at national level by crafting data-driven solutions with the support of a network of global, regional, and local partners that reflect an understanding of the unique local context. C/Can is currently active in around the world.

Roche is working with C/Can, along with partners from the private sector including additional healthcare companies and others, to bring an end-to-end, multi-sector health system solution for cancer care at the city level. C/Can engages with cities with populations of over 1 million in LMICs and aims to address the complex array of issues that can hinder access to quality cancer diagnosis, treatment, and care. Its mission is to create a global community of cities and partners working together to design, plan, and implement cancer solutions to save lives.

Roche & C/Can impactful collaboration framework

The partnership with C/Can extends beyond a traditional funding mechanism, providing technical guidance, and strategic counsel and leveraging Roche’s expertise and deep understanding of local health systems. It is anchored in the following shared objectives: 

  1. To empower city stakeholders to design and implement tailored cancer care solutions, driving improved access to quality care. 

  2. To scale local innovations to strengthen national healthcare ecosystems and influence health policy.

  3. To share locally generated knowledge and evidence to accelerate health system strengthening and showcase our collaborative, cross-sector model. 

To ensure continued success for the partnership, C/Can and Roche have jointly established an impactful collaboration framework and a governance Not only does this framework optimise their partnership at the local and global levels, leveraging strengths to effectively navigate complexities, it also provides best-in-class guidance to support other cross-sector partnerships.

The new partnership framework provides clarity on process and efficacy, transparency and enhances communication between partners. It also serves as a platform for local engagement, fostering impactful initiatives and a network for shared learning. Insights and learnings from the partnership can be found in the followingwhich hopes to inspire further cross-sector partnerships to address global gaps in cancer care.

Find out more at

References

  1. 95% of urban expansion in the next decades will take place in developing countries -

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