Hand in Hand Against Cancer

The mission of ICEDOC is daunting in its simplicity: to lessen human suffering from cancer all over the world. Yet its founding president, Dr. Ahmed Elzawawy, is confident that ICEDOC can succeed because it is an organization whose currency is compassion.

The International Campaign for Establishment and Development of Oncology Centers (ICEDOC), established in September 1996, is an outreach organization that offers free consultation services and free cancer treatment to underserved populations around the globe. ICEDOC’s “Experts in Cancer Without Borders” uses volunteers from the medical profession to mobilize efforts towards balanced approaches for cancer control and treatment. More than 120 colleagues now participate. ICEDOC is an associate member of INCTR.

Dr. Elzawawy – an Egyptian-born, Paris-trained oncologist affiliated with the Suez Canal University Hospital and Port Said General Hospital in Egypt – devotes considerable time and energy to what he considers a spiritual calling.

“If we think about cancer treatment merely as a profession, it’s as if we are simple mechanics,” Elzawawy says. “We have to remember that we’re dealing with human beings, not just flesh and bone. When our fellow human beings lack funds, lack knowledge, lack capabilities, lack the ability to cure, lack the means to give palliation, that means we must put in extra effort.”

Dr. Elzawawy.

Educated in a Catholic school in Alexandria, Egypt, Elzawawy grew up in a cosmopolitan family. In the late 1970s, the young Elzawawy chose to study medicine and work in France.

“I decided, in 1982, to return to my country, despite the fact that from a professional point of view my opportunities were better in Paris,” he says. “I started my career at a university with no oncology or radiotherapy programs.”

Professor Elzawawy became a lecturer in clinical oncology at Suez Canal University in Ismailia (one of Egypt’s new universities) and launched a small unit for chemotherapy at Port Said General Hospital, a century-old facility which still functions to serve all cancer patients in Port Said free of charge. Soon he became involved in plans to build the university hospital. Today he serves as head of clinical oncology and the nuclear medicine center there, while also directing the medical oncology unit at Port Said General, and the radiation oncology center at Al Soliman Hospital, a charity center in Port Said.

Perseverance is one of Dr. Elzawawy’s strongest traits. After nine years of failed attempts to fund better cancer facilities at Port Said, the hospital received a gift, in 1991, from a local engineer who wanted to fund a department of radiotherapy in honor of his father. The radiotherapy department treated its first patient in July 1994, and continues to offer its services free of charge. With the advent of modern cancer diagnostic and treatment facilities, he says, fewer citizens of Port Said are avoiding delay in seeking treatment. “When patients have access to reasonable and affordable treatment facilities, we can change a lot. This is the logic behind ICEDOC - to work together to alleviate the suffering of others.”

Dr. Elzawawy was among nine international consultants who prepared a global strategy for radiotherapy of cancer for the World Health Organization in 1999; WHO recognized ICEDOC as one of three primary international organizations for public education in the field in addition to its recognition in the field of professional education. A member of the advisory board of INCTR, Elzawawy travels frequently to help others establish cost-effective cancer management programs.

“When you work together hand in hand you can cause happiness while alleviating suffering of others.” That’s reward enough for him.

Marcia Landskroener for INCTR