A pilot questionnaire survey of current hospice and palliative care service provision in the 6 member countries of the Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC) was conducted during December 2003 – January 2004 by the International Observatory on End of Life Care (IOELC). The survey was commissioned by Dr Joe Harford, Director of the Office of International Affairs of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland , USA, to be prepared in advance of a MECC meeting held in Larnaca, Cyprus , 2-3 February 2004 for representatives in palliative care from all 6 MECC member countries: Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Palestinian Authority, Turkey.*

At a meeting of the Ministerial Steering Committee of MECC held in May 2003 in Geneva, several ministerial representatives expressed their desire to Tommy Thompson, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for an increased emphasis on palliative care in the context of cancer treatment. As a result of this meeting, Secretary Thompson asked the National Cancer Institute of his department to take the lead in planning a workshop on palliative care to be held in the region. The purpose of the Larnaca workshop was to raise awareness of the need for palliative care programs and to provide access to international experts in this field. A second palliative care training meeting took place in Larnaca, Cyprus, 15 – 17 November, 2005.

Following the 2004 pilot survey IOELC was commissioned to write full country reports on hospice and palliative care service provision for each of the 6 member countries. This work was completed in December 2005 (MECC Country Reports).

*The Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC) was established in 1996 with the aim of setting up population-based cancer registries for member countries in order to monitor cancer incidence, mortality and epidemiology, promote preventative health policy and encourage research and educational links. The member countries as of July 2005 are Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Palestinian Authority and Turkey. Turkey joined MECC in June 2004. Since 2004 MECC have started an education and training programme in palliative care with the aim of supporting the development and improvement of services and links nationally and internationally (http://mecc.cancer.gov/registry.html).

References:
Silbermann, M. (2001) Perspectives for cancer epidemiology research in the Middle East Gastrointestinal Oncology 4(2-3): 181-181

Freedman, L.S., Al-Kayed, S., Barchana, M., Boyiadzis, M., El-Najjar, K., Ibrahim, A.S., Salhab, A.R., Young, J.L., Roffers, S., Kahan, E., Qasem, M.B., Harford, J., Silbermann, M. Cancer Registration in the Middle East. Epidemiology 12(1): 131-133