At the UICC World Cancer Congress 2026 in Hong Kong, Ugandan researcher Annet Nakaganda will present across four sessions spanning the full arc of cancer control — from data surveillance to vaccination policy to systemic capacity building. Her presence at the congress reflects a broader truth about global health progress: that the distance between evidence and implementation is rarely crossed by individuals alone, but by networks of people who have learned to translate knowledge into coordinated action. In bringing Uganda's lessons to an international stage, Nakaganda embodies the quiet, persi
Nakaganda to Lead Multiple Sessions on Cancer Control at WCC2026
Moving from knowing what works to actually implementing it at scale
Mark
So Nakaganda is speaking at four different sessions across four days. That's a heavy load. What's the actual substance of what she's presenting?
Mimi
She's working on cervical cancer elimination, HPV vaccination policy, and cancer surveillance systems—specifically in Uganda. The CARIFAS tool she's presenting is a surveillance instrument for tracking cancer risk factors. The Cancer Policy Lab is a model for how to build health system capacity around evidence-based vaccination decisions.
Luke
Right, but I want to know: are these her tools, her research, or is she convening others' work? The source says she's "leading" sessions and presenting on these models, but it doesn't say whether she developed them or is facilitating discussion around them.
Mimi
That's a fair question. The source credits her as founder of ACCR and speaks to her work on these topics, but you're right—it doesn't specify authorship or ownership of each tool or model. She's clearly central to the work, but the exact nature of her role in developing versus implementing versus convening isn't spelled out.
Mark
Why does Uganda matter here? Is this a case study, or is there something specific about the Ugandan context that makes it a testing ground?
Mimi
Uganda appears to be where she's based and where much of her work is happening. She mentions "sharing lessons from Uganda with the global cancer control community," which suggests Uganda is both her laboratory and her home base. But the source doesn't explain why Uganda specifically, or what the particular challenges or opportunities are there.
Luke
And we don't know the scale of impact yet. Four sessions at a major congress is significant, but we don't know how many people will attend, whether these are established programs with measurable outcomes or emerging work, or what the actual results have been so far.
Mimi
True. What we do know is that she's been invited to present across multiple sessions, which suggests her work has gained enough traction and credibility to warrant that kind of platform at a major international conference.
Mark
The language she uses—"from commitments to impact," "from opportunity to impact"—suggests she's focused on implementation, not just research or theory.
Mimi
Exactly. She's not presenting pure research findings. She's presenting frameworks and tools for how to actually move cancer control work from policy into practice. That's a different kind of contribution—it's about systems and strategy, not just evidence.
Luke
But again, we don't have specifics on outcomes. We know what she's presenting on, but not what results these approaches have actually achieved. That's the gap between the announcement and the substance.
Le Pouls
- Cervical cancer and HPV vaccination remain urgent, preventable burdens in low-resource settings like Uganda — and the gap between what works and what gets implemented is still dangerously wide.
- Nakaganda's four-session schedule signals not a single message but a system: data tools, policy frameworks, innovation access, and stakeholder engagement are all pieces of the same unresolved puzzle.
- The CARIFAS surveillance tool and the Cancer Policy Lab model represent concrete attempts to give health systems the infrastructure they need to act on evidence rather than simply collect it.
- Behind the conference program lies months of collaboration, revision, and partnership-building — the invisible labor that makes a moment of global visibility possible.
- Her open invitation to attend any or all of her sessions reflects a deliberate orientation toward connection over performance, treating the congress as a space for exchange rather than exhibition.
- Uganda's cancer control experience is being offered to the world as a transferable model — with the hope that what has been learned in constrained contexts can inform strategy far beyond its borders.
At the UICC World Cancer Congress 2026 in Hong Kong, Ugandan researcher Annet Nakaganda will present across four sessions spanning the full arc of cancer control — from data surveillance to vaccination policy to systemic capacity building. Her presence at the congress reflects a broader truth about global health progress: that the distance between evidence and implementation is rarely crossed by individuals alone, but by networks of people who have learned to translate knowledge into coordinated action. In bringing Uganda's lessons to an international stage, Nakaganda embodies the quiet, persistent work that precedes any meaningful shift in how societies confront disease.
Annet Nakaganda, founder of the Ananda Centre for Cancer Research, will present across four sessions at the UICC World Cancer Congress 2026 in Hong Kong, beginning September 23rd. Her schedule spans the full week and covers distinct but deeply connected dimensions of cancer control: cervical cancer elimination, access to cancer innovation, risk factor surveillance, and HPV vaccination policy.
On Wednesday, she leads a full-day workshop on advancing cervical cancer elimination. Thursday brings a session on accelerating country-level access to cancer innovation. Friday features two appearances — a rapid-fire presentation on the CARIFAS tool, a surveillance instrument developed to track cancer risk factors in Uganda, and a flagship UICC session on cancer control planning and stakeholder engagement. Saturday closes with a presentation on the Cancer Policy Lab, a framework for building evidence-informed HPV vaccination policy within health systems.
Taken together, the four sessions trace a coherent logic: data systems inform policy, policy shapes vaccination strategy, strategy requires institutional capacity, and capacity depends on sustained collaboration. Each presentation is a different angle on the same underlying challenge — how to move from knowing what works to implementing it at scale in resource-constrained environments.
In announcing her participation, Nakaganda reflected on the accumulated effort behind such a moment — the meetings, revisions, and partnerships that make a conference presence meaningful. She was careful to frame her participation as collective rather than individual, crediting the colleagues and institutions who have worked alongside her.
For those attending WCC2026, her sessions offer a grounded look at how cancer control is being built and tested in Uganda — and how those lessons might inform the work of others facing overlapping challenges in different parts of the world.
Annet Nakaganda, founder of the Ananda Centre for Cancer Research, will take the stage at the UICC World Cancer Congress 2026 in Hong Kong across four separate sessions beginning September 23rd, each one anchored in a different dimension of cancer control work she has pursued over the past year.
The breadth of her program reflects the scope of her focus: cervical cancer elimination, access to cancer innovation, surveillance systems for cancer risk factors, and the policy infrastructure needed to translate evidence into vaccination strategy. On Wednesday morning, she will lead a full-day workshop titled "From Commitments to Impact: Advancing Cervical Cancer Elimination." The following afternoon, she moves to a session on country activation and accelerating access to cancer innovation. By Friday, she appears twice—once in a rapid-fire presentation on the CARIFAS tool, a surveillance instrument developed for tracking cancer risk factors in Uganda, and again in a flagship UICC session on cancer control planning and stakeholder engagement. Saturday brings her final appearance, another rapid-fire slot focused on the Cancer Policy Lab model, which she describes as a framework for strengthening health systems through evidence-informed HPV vaccination policy in Uganda.
In a LinkedIn post announcing her participation, Nakaganda reflected on the weight of preparation that precedes a conference of this scale. She acknowledged the long hours, the meetings, the writing and revision cycles, the partnerships built and maintained—the accumulated work that makes a moment like this possible. She framed the congress not as a destination but as a waypoint, a chance to pause and recognize how much collaboration and persistence have accumulated into something with real shape and consequence.
What emerges across her four sessions is a portrait of interconnected work: cancer data systems feeding into policy decisions; policy decisions informing vaccination strategy; vaccination strategy requiring stakeholder buy-in and health system capacity; capacity building depending on evidence and collaboration. Each session is a different angle on the same underlying challenge—how to move from knowing what works to actually implementing it at scale, particularly in contexts like Uganda where resources are constrained and coordination across institutions is essential.
Nakaganda emphasized that none of this work happens in isolation. She credited colleagues, institutions, and partners who have worked alongside her, framing her conference participation not as individual achievement but as a reflection of collective effort. Her invitation to others to join her sessions—"one or all of them"—carries an implicit recognition that the real value of a congress lies not in the presentations themselves but in the conversations that happen in the margins, the connections formed between people working on overlapping problems in different parts of the world.
For those attending WCC2026, her sessions offer a window into how cancer control strategy is being built and tested in Uganda, and how those lessons might travel. The congress runs September 23-26 in Hong Kong, and Nakaganda's schedule spans all four days, suggesting she will be present throughout, available for the kind of collaboration and reconnection she identified as central to why these gatherings matter.
Citations marquantes
These sessions represent different parts of work I care deeply about: cancer data, HPV vaccination, cancer policy, stakeholder engagement, access to innovation, and strengthening cancer control systems.— Annet Nakaganda
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