Cancer Registration in Nepal: Current Status and Way Forward

Cancer registration is an organization for the systematic collection, storage, analysis, interpretation and reporting of data on subjects with cancer. Cancer Registry was initiated in 1995 and expanded as National Cancer Registry Program since 2003 by BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital with the support of World Health Organization. NCRP currently includes 12 hospital-based registries. First time in Nepal, BPKMCH piloted population-based cancer registry in 2013, which included 15 districts covering 25.8% of total population of Nepal. NCRP is important to assure the quality of data from all the registries to ensure the availability of reliable and valid data of cancer cases. This will further help policymakers to develop prevention and control strategies of cancer. This paper reviews the current status of cancer registries in Nepal and discusses challenges and future prospective related to NCRP. National cancer registry should further include major hospitals in Nepal to give scientific information on cancer trends by community, provinces and regions and analyze on survival of cancer cases.