Developing the environmental and lifestyle exposure assessment (ELEA) tool for cancer epidemiology research in low resource settings

Globally, cancer incidence has been predicted to increase by 61% from 2008 to 2030 [1] presenting new health challenges for clinicians, researchers, prevention specialists and policy makers. [...]the largest increase is expected in countries with a low human development index, where cancer incidence is predicted to increase by 93% [1], mainly due to demographic shifts and the changing prevalence of risk factors [2]. Here we summarise existing evidence and highlight factors which should be considered in the development of an easy–to–use, cost–effective and standardised data collection process to measure risk factors in low resource settings. [...]we present an illustrative synthesis of the existing work measuring cancer risk factors in low resource settings to determine how to best facilitate future research. The International Agency for Research on Cancer’s cancer registration program, the Global Initiative for Cancer Registry Development (GICR), illustrates a straightforward approach to this type of endeavour in ascertaining basic but essential population based information on cancer [17]. Since the 1960s, cancer registries have enabled the collection of cancer incidence data, also adapted to low resource settings [17,18]. Endeavours of this nature require sophisticated data sharing and governance frameworks as well as common protocols to guide fieldwork. [...]understanding the interplay of lifestyle, environmental and genetic factors is arguably critical to determining the pattern of risk factors to improve cancer control and to prioritising evidence based initiatives especially.