The University of Pretoria recently hosted a workshop that included 80 stakeholders from various cancer research sectors to discuss and develop a cohesive national cancer research strategy.
The workshop was the first of several planned activities by the World Health Organization’s cancer control pillars and focused on prevention, early detection and diagnosis, treatment, palliative care and survivorship.
Head of Research at UP, Dr Rakeshnie Ramoutar-Prieschl, said the strategy should be broad and focus on the entire innovation value chain, from the lab to the market, rather than just research.
During her address, Ramoutar-Prieschl urged participants to consider the broader implications of their work.
“Ask yourselves what cancer strategy you want to see in South Africa that addresses skills and the infrastructure that’s needed,” she said.
“How do we drive our research so that we can translate that research into diagnostic tools, early detection capabilities, and prevention treatment?”
Ramoutar-Prieschl said the strategy needs to extend beyond research and include commercialisation, patenting, spin-off company formation, and methods that guarantee the participation of small, medium-sized, and micro enterprises.
She said the university’s mission was to pull together all cancer research initiatives that deal with these themes, from prevention to palliative care.
“Tell us what we need to consider in government and what we need to consider on the continent. We are steering towards developing a strategy not just for South Africa, but also for the continent,” she said.
Ramoutar-Prieschl added that participants should take a step back and ask themselves what is happening at other institutions and how they could bring it into this big strategy.
Director of Health Innovation at the Department of Science and Innovation, Glaudina Loots, said the incidence of cancer and cancer deaths in South Africa was being undercounted by about 30% in the national statistics on cancer.
She said this highlighted the need to think and act differently when dealing with cancer.
“At the end of the day, we want innovations and new and different ways of doing things.”
Loots encouraged participants to think beyond South Africa.
“Whatever we’re doing here, will we export it to the rest of Africa? Keep that in mind,” she added.
Head of the Department of Physiology at UP, Professor Annie Joubert, said the university has many sites with excellent work being done on cancer.
She said the university also has world-class facilities such as UP’s Institute for Cellular and Molecular Medicine, the Pan-African Cancer Research Institute, the Brain Tumour and Translational Neuroscience Centre, and the Nuclear Medicine Research Institute.
Joubert said a key issue in developing the draft national research strategy would be collaboration to create pockets of excellence both at the university and more broadly in South Africa, conducting research in silos.
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