Pr. Faith Osier, Imperial College London, London (United Kingdom)  

Cancer in Africa is a growing public health crisis, with ~1.1M new cases and >700K death in 2020.  This is expected to rise to 2.1M cases by 2040.  Breast, cervical and prostate cancers are dominant, often diagnosis is late due to limited infrastructure for screening, limited access to pathologists and high costs.  At the same time, Africa has the highest burden of infectious  globally, accounting for >227M years of health life lost, an annual productivity loss of >$800 billion & an infection-related mortality of ~10M/year.

TACII is a new African Cancer and Infection Initiative that will conduct co-ordinated   Africa-wide research on cancer, considering the unique context of infectious diseases, immune modulation and microbiome diversity.  It has representation from the five World Health Organization regions of the continent and is led by African scientists in collaboration with international partners. We will build sustainable and equitable frameworks for cancer immunology research in Africa, and translate this into affordable and accessible treatments.