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institutionsInstitution
World Health Organization Cancer Programme
The UN health agency that sets global cancer policy: the cervical cancer elimination strategy, the essential medicines list, the childhood cancer initiative and the classification of tumours.
Also called: WHOWorld Health Organization
Overview
WHO's cancer work spans its Geneva headquarters, regional offices and the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon. Headquarters leads the Global Strategy to Eliminate Cervical Cancer (90-70-90 targets for vaccination, screening and treatment), the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer, the Global Breast Cancer Initiative, and the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, which now includes many targeted and immunotherapy agents. Through IARC it produces the WHO Classification of Tumours (the Blue Books) and GLOBOCAN statistics, and it runs the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. WHO prequalification and guidance shape what low- and middle-income health systems buy and how they screen.
Location
Geneva, CH
Type
government
Newsweek 2026 oncology rank
Not in top 300 listing used
OnCo score
#192 · 30 points (0 Newsweek + 0 NCI + 30 from 15 linked objects) · ranking
Research output
From OpenAlex, oncology works in the last five years (2022 to 2026, current year in progress); counted on 2026-09-17.
Matched to World Health Organization, including child institutions. 599 works · 45,298 citations · 82% open access · 2% clinical trials · 6% reviews.
Oncology works per year
1542022
1162023
1022024
1212025
1062026
Most works
- Freddie Bray65 works
- Marc J. Gunter51 works
- Isabelle Soerjomataram50 works
- Partha Basu38 works
- Elisabete Weiderpass37 works
- Valerie McCormack31 works
- Heinz Freisling23 works
- Marion Piñeros20 works
- Anne Tjønneland20 works
- Mathieu Laversanne19 works
Most cited
- Cervical cancer elimination strategy
- Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer
- Model List of Essential Medicines
- WHO Classification of Tumours (via IARC)
- Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
Bill Gates
Co-founder of the Gates Foundation, Gavi's founding partner and the largest private funder of HPV vaccine access
Vaccine accessCervical cancer preventionGlobal health
The Gates Foundation has committed $4.1 billion to Gavi, the vaccine alliance it helped found in 2000, whose HPV programme had fully immunised nearly 60 million girls against cervical cancer by the end of 2024.
Emer Cooke
Executive Director
Medicines regulationRegulatory sciencePublic health policy
Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency since November 2020, overseeing EU approval of cancer medicines.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Director-General
Global healthHealth policyNoncommunicable disease control
Director-General of the World Health Organization, under whom WHO's global cancer initiatives are run.
André Ilbawi
Technical Lead for Cancer Control, World Health Organization
Cancer control policyGlobal healthSurgical oncology
The WHO's lead on cancer control, steering the cervical cancer elimination and global breast and childhood cancer initiatives.
Elisabete Weiderpass
Director, International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO)
Cancer epidemiologyGlobal cancer burdenPrevention
Leads the WHO's cancer research agency, which classifies carcinogens and publishes the world's cancer statistics.
Similar pages
- TrialOsmanabad cervical screening trial (HPV testing vs cytology vs VIA)
Shares Visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) for cervical screening, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO), Cancer prevention roadmap: tobacco control and vaccines → biomarker-guided chemoprevention → interception in carriers, Global access and affordability roadmap: essential medicines and generics → biosimilars and frugal trials → reliance, pooling and homegrown innovation.
- IdeaHPV self-testing with same-day treatment as the national cervical programme
Shares Visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) for cervical screening, Global access and affordability roadmap: essential medicines and generics → biosimilars and frugal trials → reliance, pooling and homegrown innovation, HPV & HBV vaccination, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- IdeaEliminate infection-caused cancers: HPV, hepatitis B and C, H. pylori and EBV
Shares International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO), Cancer prevention roadmap: tobacco control and vaccines → biomarker-guided chemoprevention → interception in carriers, HPV & HBV vaccination, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- IdeaSwitch every country to single-dose HPV vaccination and add catch-up to age 26
Shares International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO), Cancer prevention roadmap: tobacco control and vaccines → biomarker-guided chemoprevention → interception in carriers, HPV & HBV vaccination, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- IdeaPivotal trials include sites in Africa, South Asia and Latin America, sponsor-funded
Shares André Ilbawi, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO), Global access and affordability roadmap: essential medicines and generics → biosimilars and frugal trials → reliance, pooling and homegrown innovation, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- CompanySerum Institute of India
Shares Cancer prevention roadmap: tobacco control and vaccines → biomarker-guided chemoprevention → interception in carriers, Global access and affordability roadmap: essential medicines and generics → biosimilars and frugal trials → reliance, pooling and homegrown innovation, HPV & HBV vaccination, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- IdeaMake a population cancer registry a condition of every cancer aid programme
Shares GLOBOCAN / Global Cancer Observatory, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO), Global access and affordability roadmap: essential medicines and generics → biosimilars and frugal trials → reliance, pooling and homegrown innovation, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- TreatmentCERVAVAC (quadrivalent HPV vaccine, India)
Shares International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO), Cancer prevention roadmap: tobacco control and vaccines → biomarker-guided chemoprevention → interception in carriers, Global access and affordability roadmap: essential medicines and generics → biosimilars and frugal trials → reliance, pooling and homegrown innovation, HPV & HBV vaccination.