Position: Vice President – Southern Africa

I am female oncologic surgeon from Angola/Africa.
Since 2019, at our district hospital we manage to create an oncologic department in a maternity hospital, with screening, diagnostic, surgical treatment of breast and cervix cancer. And since 2024 alongside with the main reference hospital we can offer chemotherapy locally.

We also started Pink October awareness activities since 2019, and congregate clinical breast examination, in community, and the referral to the hospital of all clinical positive ones. In 2024 we start performing locally FNA (fine needle aspiration) to positive ones, and send the sample to be processed in order to reduce the delay
Since 2024 we start a screening program cytology and colposcopy based to HIV positive women.

Alongside with three other hospitals we have the first population based cancer registry. Whose data were published in Globocan, by the first time Angola data were real and not based in nearby countries.

I’m as well fellow from AORTIC ACLI institute since 2023, and has been ASCO mentored in 2024.

I’ve been selected to participate at SSO (SOCIETY OF SURGICAL ONCOLOGY) at Tampa Florida, and one week observership program at MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER, exchange program 2025.

A training program residents, and junior MD Gyne/OB, in order to screen, diagnose, and discuss in a board female cancer conditions. As well as nurses, training to breast clinical, exam, colposcopy, cytology, and perform FNA.

Motivation
My contribute will emphasize collaboration in the region, divulgate solutions that can be shared. Identify those countries on boards that may be geographically easy to cooperate, and find common resolutions. Inceltivize a regional database. Search fund opportunity, to promote local training ,built capacity for sustainable projects.

As a medical oncologist in Malawi, my major research focus is on identifying novel biomarkers for therapy resistance in gastrointestinal cancers and addressing challenges in cancer care in resource-limited settings. My research includes basic studies on biomarkers for treatment response and cancer progression in colon cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma.

In support of cancer care in Africa, I lead projects on decentralisation of HIV/AIDS related Kaposi sarcoma treatment with paclitaxel in the district hospitals of Malawi, now expanded to community hospitals, collaborate on the Africa liver cancer guidelines project with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and co-lead projects with the Africa HepatoPancreatoBiliary Cancer Consortium with Mayo Clinic. I’m the Malawi country lead for the Every Woman Study – Low- and Middle-Income Countries Edition, focusing on ovarian cancer care.

I organize the annual Kamuzu Central Hospital cancer summit with Pfizer and collaborate with Maxaccess foundation and the Advanced Breast Cancer Global Alliance to improve access to targeted therapies for cancers like chronic myeloid leukemia, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, and breast cancer.

I’m a member of ASCO’s international affairs committee, serving as a liaison to the sub-Saharan Africa Regional Council, enhancing ASCO’s presence in Africa and collaboration with AORTIC. Through this, we’ve run grants for improving breast cancer care in sub-Saharan Africa and launched clinical research training for African researchers.

Motivation
I’d be an ideal candidate due to my experience in cancer care and research in Malawi and Africa. I’d impact AORTIC programs by fostering collaboration, improving access to cancer care in resource-limited settings, and promoting research. I’d work to enhance cancer care and research status in Africa through partnerships and capacity building.