NEWS

WHO Reorganizes, Groups Cancer Program With Other Non-Communicable Diseases

Caroline McNeil

The World Health Organization has revamped its structure, replacing 50 existing programs with nine "clusters." Announced by Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland in May, the reorganization means that the former Cancer Control Programme is now part of the Non-Communicable Disease cluster.

The NCD cluster is divided into departments that focus on surveillance, prevention, and management; a "tobacco-free initiative" is also part of this cluster. The former cancer program staff will become a team "working across the three departments" according to a WHO statement. The NCD cluster is directed by Jie Chen, M.D., who comes to WHO from Shanghai Medical University.

Officials say the new structure makes sense because certain prevention strategies, such as smoking cessation and dietary changes, are similar for major non-communicable diseases like heart disease and cancer. But others have criticized the move. Karol Sikora, M.D., who was chief of the old Cancer Control Programme, resigned in July, saying that the new structure creates a top heavy bureaucracy that will make it difficult to get things done.

WHO's cancer control experts, who for several years have been based in Lyon at WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, will move back to Geneva at the end of August.

WHO's Ala Alwan, M.D., said that the agency is inviting applications to fill the position of chief of the cancer control program and hopes to hire someone within 3 months. Alwan also said WHO may convene a meeting to review progress on the national cancer programs once that position is filled.

Sikora has taken a position with Pharmacia & Upjohn in Milan as vice president for drug development. He also remains a professor of international cancer medicine at the Imperial College School of Medicine in London.



             
Copyright © 1999 Oxford University Press (unless otherwise stated)
Oxford University Press Privacy Policy and Legal Statement