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Cancer researchers from Asia attending the International Union against Cancer (UICC) symposium in Nanjing, China in November, have developed plans for a regional network to share data on cancer epidemiology and prevention. As reported in the journal Nature, the Asian Cancer Registry and Information Network, as it will be called, is intended to house data from cancer registries in countries in an area that spans from the Philippines to Turkey. Although many of these countries have national registries already, lack of standardisation makes it impossible to compare the information they contain.

The network is reportedly applying for ¥60 million (US$542 000) over 3 years to create the first regional centre in Japan. As well as holding standardized data for epidemiological research, cancer risk assessment and prevention planning, the network will provide an opportunity to investigate why some cancers occur more commonly in some Asian nations than others and identify Asian-specific genetic sequences that affect the reactions to particular drugs. The organizers also hope that the network will help to build international cooperation in this historically divided region. "Most of the data used in cancer studies are from Westerners,” says Sumio Sugano, a genomics specialist at the University of Tokyo. “This is a chance to use Asian data.”