To the editor. Cancer is a health priority, thus, having tools to assess its impact on society in clinical, social and economic terms is highly important. These tools should be created within the framework of the National Cancer Law ¹ and the Digital Government Law, the latter approved with Legislative Decree 1412 that resulted in the creation of a National Open Data Platform, with the aim of facilitating free access to relevant information and its processing, storage, communication and interpretation ². There are several information categories in the aforementioned platform. The health category should include a section containing, in a specific and unified manner, information related to cancer, in order to provide an overview of the population with cancer and the public health situation in Peru, thus facilitating the access to evidence for health decision-making.

Along these lines, we searched the web pages of public health and autonomous entities (such as health professional associations), using the National Comprehensive Cancer Care Plan 2020-2024 ³ as reference. The information was categorized into five dimensions: epidemiology, information on pharmaceutical products, coverage, specialized service and specialized care. We present a list of 21 cancer-related sources (Table 1), which were examined in order to verify the availability or non-availability of the data.

It should be noted that, although efforts have been made to record data on cancer, this information has been published by different sources. We found that 48% (n=10) of the sources were specific for cancer, 24% (n=5) had outdated information and 14% (n=3) were not specific for cancer. In addition, three sources didn’t have information available (two were not linked to the information and one did not publish cancer-related information).

Cancer-related information has been centralized by other countries in different ways, such as the Global Cancer Observatory-GCO (GloboCAN) ⁴, the National Cancer Observatory of the Government of Colombia ⁵ and an Oncology Observatory in Brazil ⁶. These observatories conduct research, create monitoring indicators, identify differences between regions, and recognize gaps in information, among other activities. In Peru, the creation of an observatory has been considered in the Regulations of the National Cancer Law ⁷ and in the Regulations of the Medical Emergency Law for the Timely Detection and Comprehensive Care of Child and Adolescent Cancer ⁸. This observatory could monitor the progress of outcome indicators and processes related to reducing cancer morbimortality in children and adolescents. However, the observatory is still being implemented, despite the fact that Peru is the first country in the region to be considered for the global initiative against childhood cancer ⁹, and having announced the creation of a National Observatory of Childhood Cancer ¹⁰. In view of the above, we consider that the sources of information in Peru could be used to create an open data platform on cancer, which would facilitate free access to information. The National Center for Epidemiology, Prevention and Disease Control (CDC) Peru, along with the Directorate for Cancer Prevention and Control could manage the platform.

In conclusion, creating a Cancer Open-Data Platform is possible and advisable. It could be created by unifying different sources of information, inter-institutional collaboration, as well as the economic sustainability and optimization of the sources of information. This platform could facilitate monitoring the epidemiological, economic, and health care aspects as well as other factors related to the cancer situation in Peru. This initiative could generate organized, focused and representative information on cancer in Peru, which could contribute to comprehensive, free and dignified care for the population.