The Cali Cancer Registry an example for Latin America

The Cali Cancer Registry was started 50 years ago as a research program of the Department of Pathology of Universidad del Valle. It is presently continuing its strong silent but meaningful work , internationally recognized as the oldest most trustworthy and reliable source of data on descriptive epidemiology in Latin America. This is evidenced by the publication, of its results in “Cancer Incidence in Five Continents”, the most prestigious source of of data on cancer incidence, since 1968 until the present time. Some population based cancer registries have started but had a premature death in Latin America. Some had been too ambitious in covering too large populations or whole countries. Others have been unable to maintain its modest but much needed economic support, reflecting the shortsightedness of national and international entities that provided the initial but not the continued funding. A few had followed the Cali Registry experience and have been able to survive economic difficulties experienced recently by some Latin American countries. Hopefully their initial success can be sustained and allow them to maintain is pioneering work. Such is the case of the Cancer Registry of Quito, operating very efficiently for 25 years, and the recently created Colombian Registries in Pasto, Manizales and Bucaramanga.