REDECAN's main projects are mainly related to the production of cancer statistics and indicators for cancer surveillance and control.
The assessment of the impact of cancer in a population is done mainly through:
- The incidence (new cases), which expresses the risk of presenting the disease.
- Mortality (deaths), which expresses the risk of dying from the disease.
- Survival, which reflects the natural history of the disease and the effectiveness of treatment.
- The prevalence, which reflects the number of living people who have had the disease at some point in their lives, whether or not they are cured. It depends on the incidence and survival.
This information as a whole is useful for the planning of preventive, healthcare and evaluative activities, as well as for the establishment of priority lines of research, all aimed at the surveillance and control of cancer in a population.