The IARC Monographs programme celebrated its 50th anniversary between December 2021 and December 2022. The first IARC Monographs meeting took place on 13–17 December 1971 in Geneva, Switzerland, and the results were published with the distinctive orange cover as Volume 1 of the IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of the Carcinogenic Risk of Chemicals to Man in 1972. We celebrated this milestone with a number of special events.
The IARC Monographs newsletter
The IARC Monographs newsletter (published three times per year) was inaugurated on 13 December 2021 to mark the 50th anniversary of the first IARC Monographs meeting.Read the IARC Monographs newsletter
The 50th-anniversary logo
IARC personnel created a special 50th-anniversary logo through an in-house competition. This logo appears on the covers of IARC Monographs volumes resulting from meetings held, as well as volumes published, during the anniversary year.View the 50th anniversary logo
Read about the winner of the logo-design competition
Scientific workshop and publication on Epidemiological bias assessment in cancer hazard identification
On 17–21 October 2022, the IARC Monographs programme and the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics of the National Cancer Institute, USA, jointly convened a scientific workshop to develop a new volume in the authoritative IARC Scientific Publications series Statistical methods in cancer research, the fourth and last volume in which was published more than 30 years ago. The series includes the landmark publications authored by Norman Breslow and Nicholas Day – Volume I: The analysis of case–control studies and Volume II: The design and analysis of cohort studies. Experts participating in the workshop gathered and distilled modern advances in interpretation and statistical methods to assess the impact of bias in observational cancer epidemiology studies and demonstrate with examples how these methods can be used to support cancer hazard identification.
Webinar: IARC Monographs − past, present, and future
In this public webinar, held on Wednesday 2 November 2022, current and former Heads of the IARC Monographs programme gathered to discuss their views on which IARC Monographs meetings have had the greatest impact on public health and cancer prevention, and what key changes to the programme were implemented under their leadership.
The photo gallery and exhibition
We have collected some photos to create an online gallery illustrating the history and evolution of the IARC Monographs over the first 50 years of the programme. As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations and to mark the inauguration of the new IARC headquarters in Gerland, in May 2023, the IARC Monographs and IARC Communications teams also developed and expanded the gallery into a physical exhibition presenting the work of the IARC Monographs programme over the last 50 years by highlighting some evaluations of selected agents and their impact on public health globally.
View the photo gallery
View the exhibition
We would be delighted to hear from past Working Group Members who would like to share their memories of the first 50 years of the IARC Monographs.
Contact us at imo@iarc.who.int.