• Sadaf G Sepanlou, Arash Etemadi, Farin Kamangar, Alireza Sepehr, Akram Pourshams, Hossein Poustchi, Farhad Islami, Alireza Sadjadi, Dariush Nasrollahzadeh, Shahryar Semnani, Farrokh Saidi, Christian C Abnet, Bruce Ponder, Paul D Pharoah, Nicholas E Day, Paul Brennan, Paolo Boffetta, Sanford M Dawsey, and Reza Malekzadeh.
• Digestive Disease Research Center, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences Tehran, Iran.
• Arch Iran Med. 2013 Jan 1; 16 (1): 465346-53.

BackgroundThe Gastro-Esophageal Malignancies in Northern Iran (GEMINI) research project is an example of recent progress in health research in Iran. The original aim of this project was to identify etiologic factors and prevention measures for upper gastrointestinal cancers in Northern provinces of Iran, but its achievements have gone much beyond this initial goal.MethodsGEMINI consists of several projects including cancer registries, pilot studies, case-control studies, and the Golestan Cohort Study. GEMINI has been conducted through extensive collaborations between the Digestive Disease Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences with other domestic and international health organizations. The achievements of GEMINI include producing new knowledge, introducing new research methods, developing and expanding health research and health care infrastructures, investing in human resources, and increasing the awareness and knowledge of policy makers and officials at all levels about the importance of chronic diseases in Iran's health priorities.ConclusionThe success of GEMINI reveals the feasibility of large-scale health research studies in developing countries and serves as a successful model not only for health research in Iran, but also for similar research studies in other developing nations.

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