International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC): Scientist

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), is the cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO) and is based in Lyon, France.

The Cancer Surveillance Branch (CSU) is expanding its portfolio of research to quantify the societal and economic consequences of cancer, as part of IARC’s mandate as a reference source in the provision of global cancer data. With governments committing to improve equitable and affordable access to high-quality, cost-effective cancer services, there is a need for a systematic and ongoing collection and interpretation of such data, at all levels, including the impact of cancer control interventions.

Building on several collaborative descriptive studies within CSU, the aim is to better understand the global burden of cancer and how it impacts national economies and health systems. The incumbent will develop relevant global indicators and related research activities at IARC, within the domains of descriptive epidemiology, demography, and health economics. The incumbent will be expected to develop global indicators (DALYs, productivity loss etc.) for inclusion in IARC’s Global Cancer Observatory (GCO) and construct models to quantify the public health, societal and economic impact of specific cancer prevention and cancer control strategies, often with a special emphasis placed on low and middle-income countries. Cooperative work with internal and external technical partners is an integral part of this role; the incumbent will work closely with CSU supervisors and WHO, in supporting their normative work of the latter organization, including the development of tools to assist national policymakers in identifying priority interventions, as part of national cancer planning.

The goals of the Cancer Surveillance Branch (CSU) are:

• To ensure that locally recorded high-quality cancer data are available to governments in countries in transition, to inform priorities for national cancer control.
• To serve as a reference to the global cancer community in the provision of national cancer indicators.
• To describe and interpret the changing magnitude and transitional nature of cancer risk profiles worldwide.
• To advocate the health, social, and economic benefits of preventive interventions, through a systematic quantification of their future impact.

The position reports to the Deputy Head of CSU. The incumbent undertakes research activities linked to better understanding the global cancer burden from economic and socioeconomic perspectives. Currently data on the economic burden of cancer is either fragmented or unavailable, and there is a need to develop relevant indicators to support cancer control planning and research and integrate these into the GCO. The incumbent will interact with different groups at IARC, WHO and other international and national research institutions to develop relevant health economics analyses related to cancer prevention and control.

For full position details Click Here