IARC 60th Anniversary - 19-21 May 2026
Session : 21/05/26 - Posters
A European collaborative initiative to systematically map cancer risk by migration background: the Cancer RADAR project
ALBERTS C. 1,2,3, GEORGES D. 1, BRAY F. 11, BORDONI A. 4, CARULLA ARESTÉ M. 5, CHIRLAQUE LÓPEZ M. 6, DIDKOWSKA J. 10, JAUME G. 5, VAN HERCK K. 8, MIGLIORE E. 7, LAURA O. 4, RICHIARDI L. 7, SÁNCHEZ GIL A. 6, VERDOODT F. 8, OTTO V. 9, WOJCIECHOWSKA U. 10, GINI A. 1, MAN I. 1, ROSSO S. 7, BAUSSANO I. 1
1 International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO), Early Detection Prevention and Infections Branch, Lyon, France; 2 Epidemiology and Data Science Department, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 3 Public Health Service (GGD) Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 4 Cancer Registry of canton Ticino, Ticino, Switzerland; 5 Cancer registry of Tarragona, Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Service, Hospital University Sant Joan de Reus, IISPV, Reus, Reus, Spain; 6 Cancer registry of Murcia, CIBERESP, Murcia, Spain; 7 Piedmont Cancer Register, University Hospital Cittŕ della Salute e della Scienza di Torino and CPO-Piemonte, Turin, Italy; 8 Belgian Cancer Registry (BCR), Brussels, Belgium; 9 Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organization (IKNL), Utrecht, Netherlands; 10 Polish National Cancer Registry, Maria Sklodowska-Curie Research Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland; 11 International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO), Cancer Surveillance Branch, Lyon, France
Background: The WHO Action Plan for Refugee and Migrant Health calls for strengthened migration health governance and data-driven policymaking. However, the lack of systematically collected, comparable health data on migrants remains a critical barrier. About 12% of the European population (87 million people) has a migration background, and cancer risk among migrants can differ substantially from that in both their countries of origin and host countries.
Objectives: This study assesses the availability of routine data to map cancer risk among people with a migration background in Europe and tests data collection in seven population-based pilot registries.
Methods: The selected cancer types (breast, colorectal, cervical, stomach, liver, and lung) are either preventable through primary prevention (infection-related, tobacco control) or amenable to detection through screening. In collaboration with population-based cancer registries, a framework was developed to collect cancer data stratified by country of birth. Using data from seven pilot registries, we characterised cancer risk by migration background.
Results: The feasibility of collecting data stratified by migration background was high: 48 of 80 registries (60%) were able and willing to share data, and a further eight (10%) intended to retrieve and share data, together representing 22 countries. Motivations for data sharing included the potential to reduce cancer inequalities and increase registry visibility, while barriers included time constraints, limited resources, and the need for ethical and legal approvals, particularly for data linkage. A protocol and analysis tool, co-developed with the pilot registries, supports comparable effect measures while ensuring data protection through anonymisation and aggregation. The Cancer RADAR framework will enable analyses of inequalities and trends in cancer incidence.
Pilot data showed that cancer incidence in migrants’ birth countries is a good proxy for infection-related cancer risk in the host country, whereas this association was not observed for colon, breast, or lung cancer. For example, women had a two- to four-fold higher risk of cervical cancer relative to the host population when they were born in a high-incidence country (ASIR_birth-country ≥ 22 per 100.000 py). Colon and breast cancer risks were similar or lower among individuals with a migration background.
Conclusion: Cancer RADAR provides a framework for the systematic and comparable collection of cancer data by migration background across Europe. This work represents a crucial enabling step toward standardised international comparisons and supports data-driven policies to address cancer inequalities.