TEHRAN – Organized by the University of Zanjan, the second International Congress on Cancer Prevention is scheduled to take place from October 1 to 2, aiming to foster research collaborations with national and international educational institutions, NGOs, and ministries.

The congress will be centered around eight topics, including nutrition, genetics and technology, training and developing culture, artificial intelligence, psychological science modeling, sport sciences, and economics, IRNA reported.

The event also aims to raise public awareness, prevent and reduce cancer in the country, and improve community health.

A total of 161 out of 189 submitted articles were referred for judging. Ultimately, 101 articles by local and foreign scholars from  Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, India, Taiwan, Germany, and Armenia were accepted to be presented in the congress; 32 articles will be delivered as lectures, and 69 will be presented in the form of posters.

The congress will also host 24 key lecturers, including those from neighboring and European countries.

Preventive measures

The health ministry is planning to implement a comprehensive screening program for the early detection of the three most common, but preventable cancers (namely breast, cervical, and colon) in the country.

The program will be initially piloted in the three pilot provinces of Qom, Isfahan, and Mazandaran within the framework of the family physician program.

The target groups are the individuals aged 30 to 70 and, in some cases, those who are 40 to 75 years old, ISNA quoted Jafar Jandaqi, an official with the health ministry, as saying.

Both early and advanced tests for breast, cervical, and colon cancers are available. Six or seven months into the implementation of the program, it will be expanded all over the country, he noted.

Forty percent of the cancers can be avoided; early detection through screening will increase the chance for successful treatment and improve the life expectancy of the patients, he added.

While in other countries, screening program will only target high risk groups, like those with a family history in cancer, the health ministry intends to implement a comprehensive screening program for the aforementioned cancers throughout individuals’ lives, from birth to the final years of life, within the Primary Health Care (PHC) system to be able to define treatment, and home-based palliative and care services to those in need of these services, Jandaqi noted.

The screening program will involve different service packages, including prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation packages. The health ministry will utilize modern technologies such as artificial intelligence to further promote diagnosis and offer services, the official said.

According to the health ministry, cancers are the leading causes of premature mortality in the country.

Cancers account for more than 55 thousand deaths annually. Some 34 thousand deaths out of 122 thousand premature deaths (under 70 years of age) and 11 thousand deaths out of 85 thousand very premature deaths (under 50 years of age) are caused by various cancers.

The latest national cancer census shows that the number of new cancer cases in Iran is expected to increase to 160,000 by the Iranian calendar year 1404 (March 2025-March 2026), indicating an increase of 43 percent.

The first 10 most common cancers in Iran are breast, prostate, colon, stomach, lung, bladder, thyroid, uterus, brain, and spine cancers. The most common cancers of Iranian women include breast, colon, thyroid, stomach, uterine, leukemia, ovary, brain and spine, lungs, and esophagus. Around 250,000 Iranians are now living with cancer.

MT/MG