AORTIC-ASCO Meeting

June 4th, 2016, 6 to 9:30 pm, Hilton Chicago

AORTIC Road Map to Cancer control in Africa:
Strengthening AORTIC North America. Strengthening Partnership and Collaboration

The AORTIC ASCO 2016 meeting took place on June 4th during the Annual ASCO meeting in Chicago . The meeting was entitled AORTIC Road Map to Cancer control in Africa: Strengthening AORTIC North America. Strengthening Partnership and Collaboration.

The program objectives were to  Discuss/propose strategies to strengthen AORTIC North America and enhance partnerships and collaboration in Research and Education between AORTC and North American Organizations, Clinicians and Researchers. The second objective was to  provide a networking forum that will connect African clinicians and investigators with North American Clinicians and Investigators.

The meeting was very well attended by physicians and researchers from the continent who were attending The ASCO meeting. AORTIC leaders such as Dr. Christopher  Williams, Dr. James F. Holland, Dr. Jimmie Holland, Dr. Funmi Olopade, Dr. N.A.Othieno-Abinya and Dr. Ahmed Elzawawy were also in attendance as well as Dr. Paul Ruff and Dr. Linus Chung from ASCO International. The meeting was moderated by Dr. Nazik Hammad, AORTIC North America VP who together with the audience discussed the role of AORTIC and strategies for strengthening collaboration and partnerships.

Dr. James F. Holland and Dr. Jimmie Holland provided the opening remarks and discussed AORTCI history, mission and its current momentum. Dr. Williams discussed the history of AORTIC North America, its website and possible future directions.

Dr. Abinya discussed the status of cancer control in Kenya. He gave a comprehensive review of the current situation in terms of public and private endeavors and the role of different stakeholders. This generated a lively discussion of the strengths and weakness of cancer control programs in Sub-Saharan Africa in general and the challenges facing capacity building efforts.

Dr. Ruff described some of ASCO initiatives in Africa such as International Development and Education Award (IDEA) and International Innovation Grants and discussed avenues for improving the collaboration between ASCO and AORTIC.

Dr. Elzawawy shared the vision of Harvard Global Health Catalyst Win-Win Initiative which is to foster scientific approaches and collaboration to reduce the cost of cancer therapies and increase cost effectiveness and affordability of cancer treatment for in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC). He discussed that some of these approaches could offer reasonable solutions for acceptable treatment for underserved cancer patients in the high income countries too.

The bulk of the meeting was devoted to the discussion related to optimizing research and training partnerships with ASCO and other organizations. Dr. Funmi Olopade emphasized the role of young African researchers in leading the future of cancer control in Africa. Some of the young researchers present at the meeting briefed the audience of their ongoing research and their collaborations with other researchers in and outside Africa.

The meeting ended with a discussion on how to improve such gatherings in the future to ensure that African attendees of ASCO annual meeting get the maximum benefit of the meeting in terms of enhancing networking and collaboration.

MADCaP The Men of African Descent and Carcinoma of the Prostate Consortium

Prostate cancer is most common in black men. Prof Chinegwundoh, explains (Part filmed during @AORTIC_AFRICA Nigeria)