Objective: to review the progress in the area of populationbased cancer registries in Colombia, Chile and Brazil. Methodology: a literature review in Spanish, Portuguese, and English using the lilacs, bireme, scielo, medline, and isi databases as well as specialized websites. Results: Colombia has 8 records, 4 of them are indexed by the iacr (10% of the national population), and 4 are still not indexed (18% of the national population). The registry of Cali city is 50 years old and is considered a regional reference. Likewise, three Chilean registries are indexed and cover 6.2% of the national population. In addition, two unindexed registries cover a further 7.2% of the Chilean population. Also, the National Childhood Cancer Registry of Chile covers 100% of the population under 15 years and operates since 2006. Brazil, in turn, has population-based registries for 20 cities which cover 19% of the total population. These registries operate jointly with hospital registries. Discussion and conclusions: population coverage in the region is low compared to Europe and North America. There is evidence of progress in all three countries, particularly the existence of political and regulatory support. It is necessary to expand population coverage and further improve data quality. The use of information technologies promotes the development and integration of registries. ---------