The first meeting of National Cancer Institute Directors took place at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy when five National Cancer Institute Directors enjoyed a two day meeting and Symposium. Since 2002, meetings have been extended to include Directors of Regional Cancer Institutes and have experienced a growing success with continually increasing participation. Since inception attendees representing a wide range of countries including China, India, Brazil, Russian Federation, Singapore, Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Australia, France, United Kingdom, Sweden, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Belgium, United States of America, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Nigeria, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Guinee, Turkey, Tanzania, Serbia, Tunisia, Algeria, Canada, Nepal, Bangladesh, Ireland, Pakistan and Sierra Leone have been in attendance.

The eighth meeting of National Cancer Institute Directors took place in Lyon between 10th and 12th July, 2013 as decided at the previous meeting. The previous meeting attracted 80 participants from 45 countries at varying levels of income and resource level. The 2013 meeting attracted a great deal of interest and several projects initiated at our last meeting have come to fruition and the results were presented this year.