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# Connector iarc-globocan — compliance memo (no ingestion)

Status: review, license restricted. Reviewed 2026-09-08 by the connector author (an automated agent); a human decision and IARC's written permission are required before any ingestion.

# 1. What exists

  • Global Cancer Observatory (GCO), Cancer Today: GLOBOCAN 2022 (version 1.1, date_release: 08.02.2024 per the application configuration) — incidence, mortality, prevalence for 36 cancers × 185 countries × sex × age.
  • Cancer Today is a Vue SPA (https://gco.iarc.who.int/today/), whose bundle references a gateway API https://gco.iarc.who.int/gateway_prod/api/… (also gateway_dev) and https://gco-api.iarc.fr/api/globocan/v3/; a probe of gateway_prod/api/cancer/today/v1/getPopulationTable?populations=900&sexes=0&ages=0&years=2022&types=0&mode=cancer&key=asr&multiple_populations=0&multiple_cancers=1&cancers=15 returned HTTP 200 (empty body with these guessed parameters). The API is undocumented for third parties.
  • Bulk downloads: fact sheets and data behind the "Download" buttons of the Cancer Today tables (https://gco.iarc.who.int/media/globocan/…).

# 2. What the terms say (verbatim, with sources)

The GCO footer link "Terms of use" points to https://publications.iarc.who.int/Terms-Of-Use, which states:

"Extracts from IARC's Materials and Site may be reviewed, reproduced, or translated for research, private study, educational or non-commercial purposes with limited circulation, provided that the IARC source be appropriately acknowledged."

"Reproduction or translation of substantial portions of Materials, reproduction or translation for wider circulation, or any use other than for research, private study, educational or non-commercial purposes require explicit, written permission to be obtained from IARC." (inquiries: publications@iarc.who.int)

The Cancer Today route /today/en/terms-of-use (https://gco.iarc.who.int/today/en/terms-of-use) is rendered client-side; its text is embedded in the application bundle https://gco.iarc.who.int/today/assets/main-DYvbrdoX.js (key copyright) and reads:

"IARC has proprietary rights to the materials on the Website. Publications/data made available by IARC/WHO enjoy copyright protection in accordance with the provisions of Protocol 2 of the Universal Copyright Convention. All rights are reserved. Materials (graphs, tables) may be used 'as is' for research, educational or other non-commercial purposes, but the corresponding reference must be cited in all cases. Requests for any other use, including, but not limited to, use in conjunction with commercial purposes, should be addressed to publications@iarc.fr. Systematic retrieval of data to create or compile, directly or indirectly, a collection, database or directory without explicit prior written permission from IARC is prohibited."

Attribution required by the application: "Ferlay J, Ervik M, Lam F, Laversanne M, Colombet M, Mery L, Piñeros M, Znaor A, Soerjomataram I, Bray F (2024). Global Cancer Observatory: Cancer Today (version 1.1). Lyon, France: International Agency for Research on Cancer. Available from: https://gco.iarc.who.int/today, accessed [DD Month YYYY]." and the overview paper "Bray F, Laversanne M, Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL, Soerjomataram I, Jemal A. Global cancer statistics 2022: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. 2024;74(3):229-263. doi:10.3322/caac.21834."

The generic site https://gco.iarc.who.int/en/terms-of-use is the same SPA shell (footer link → publications terms).

# 3. Assessment

CancerIndex would retrieve the GLOBOCAN tables systematically to build a database — precisely what the Cancer Today terms prohibit "without explicit prior written permission from IARC" — and www.cancerindex.io is not limited to non-commercial circulation. Therefore:

  • licenseStatus = restricted, commercialUse = prohibited, redistribution = restricted, status = review.
  • sync() throws license review pending — ingestion disabled … unless both the manifest is changed to approved in code review (after IARC's written permission is on file) and IARC_TERMS_ACCEPTED_BY=<full name> records who accepted/attached that permission. healthCheck() only probes the gateway and returns status review.
  • Country/global burden rankings remain unavailable and are shown as "awaiting license review" (docs/source-policy.md).

# 4. Permission request (template)

To: publications@iarc.fr (cc csu@iarc.who.int) Subject: Request for permission — use of GLOBOCAN 2022 estimates in CancerIndex.io

"CancerIndex.io is a provenance-first oncology knowledge platform (operator: …). We request written permission to (1) retrieve the GLOBOCAN 2022 (v1.1) national and global estimates of incidence, mortality and 5-year prevalence for the 36 cancer sites via the Cancer Today download tables or the API, (2) store them with full provenance (citation, version, retrieval date) and (3) display them and derived rankings on www.cancerindex.io and its public API, with the required GCO citation on every value. Intended use: [non-commercial research/educational | commercial — specify]. Frequency: one retrieval per GLOBOCAN release. We will not redistribute bulk copies. Please indicate any conditions (attribution format, no-bulk-download clause, fee)."

# 5. Mapping plan (once approved)

  • Join key: TOP_LEVEL_CANCERS[].globocanCode (1 = Lip, oral cavity … 36 = Leukaemia; 39 = All cancers excl. NMSC) → canonical entity through cancer_codes (system ncit = entry.ncit or icd10 = entry range) — never by name. A cancer_codes row system = 'globocan' would be recorded with CURATED_EXACT at approval time.
  • Geography: GCO population codes (ISO numeric; 900 = World) → geographies.iso3/slug; WHO regions → who_region.
  • Metrics: incidence_count, mortality_count, as_incidence_rate, as_mortality_rate (World (Segi) standard → standard_population = "World (Segi)"), prevalence_5y; estimate_type = estimated; site_definition = GLOBOCAN site label + ICD-10 range; provenance dataset = "GLOBOCAN 2022 (Cancer Today v1.1)", dataset_version = "08.02.2024", evidence_type = registry (modelled estimates — flagged estimated), access_level = open, license = the permission reference.
  • Never mix GLOBOCAN estimates with observed US registry values in one ranking scope (source is part of the scope key).

# Files

packages/connectors/src/connectors/iarc-globocan/{manifest.ts,index.ts,iarc-globocan.test.ts}.