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News INCTR Team Visits Nepal A group from INCTR visited Nepal in early January 2005 to assess progress made with respect to the ongoing palliative care project there; to discuss dissemination of the (also ongoing) cervical cancer screening project to other regions in Nepal; and to assess the status of pediatric oncology in the region. The group also partici-pated in a one-day workshop organized by INCTR’s Nepalese branch, and a meeting took place with the President and senior members of the Nepalese Cancer Society regarding collaboration with INCTR. Palliative Care: The palliative care team, consisting of five persons led by Dr. Stuart Brown, gave seminars, participated in ward rounds and discussed patient care at the Scheer Memorial Hospital, Hospice Nepal, Bhaktapur Cancer Center and the Kanti Children’s Hospital. Dr. Brown visited the Ministry of Health to discuss opioid availability in Nepal and how this might be improved. In addition, INCTR promised to provide $10,000 for a vehicle to be used to develop a new home palliative care program. This promise has subsequently been met. Clinical guidelines for palliative care, written in concert with those involved in palliative care in Nepal and the INCTR palliative care team, have been completed and were made available to the participating institutions during the visit. Cervical Cancer Screening: A meeting was held in the Maternity Hospital of Kathmandu with the Director, Dr. Kasturi Malla, and one of the senior gynaecologists to discuss expansion of the ongoing screening programs in Nepal. Dr. Malla expressed considerable interest in INCTR’s programs, and suggested that all graduates from her program should be trained in direct visualization techniques for cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia. A first training workshop was subsequently held (see below). Workshop on Cancer Control in Nepal: The workshop, held on January 9th, was a great success, being attended by doctors from eight hospitals and two medical schools.
Report from NNCTR/INCTR Nepal Workshop: A three-day Skill Transfer Workshop on cervical cancer screening and prevention, jointly organized by INCTR’s branch in Nepal and the Maternity Hospital of Kathmandu, was held on January 27-29th. Participants included 13 senior lady doctors and 10 staff nurses and matrons from the Maternity Hospital, Tribhuvan Teaching Hospital, ADRA Nepal, and other medical professionals. This was a “hands-on” workshop in the course of which 107 women were screened for cervical cancer. Plans are being made for future training activities. Discussion of chronic non-communicable diseases in Nepal: A meeting was held to discuss cancer control in the context of non-communicable diseases in general. Participants from major hospitals and cancer centers in Nepal attended, as well as Dr. Surendra Shrestha from NNCTR/INCTR Nepal, and Dr. Nirakar Man, Joint Secretary from the Ministry of Health in charge of non-communicable diseases. Dr. Man pointed out that funding available for non-communicable diseases in Nepal is not fully utilized, and would be interested in working with the above stakeholders to developing a plan for control of chronic diseases in Nepal. AGM and Governing Council Meeting INCTR’s Annual General Meeting and Governing Council Meeting took place on March 5th of this year. The previous year’s budget and proposed budget for 2005 were approved, and INCTR’s progress and future plans discussed. The Council approved the INCTR Charter, which is now available on INCTR’s portal. Meeting on Research Methodology A one-day meeting on Research Methodology organized in collaboration with Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital and Research Center took place in Lahore on March 11th. Investigator Meeting for Leukemia Study A meeting of the Principal Investigators participating in the protocol entitled “The Treatment and Characterization of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults” was held in Chennai at the Cancer Institute (WIA) on March 22nd to discuss study progress since the initiation of patient accrual last August. Bhawna Sharma, who joined the INCTR India Office as Data Monitor in November, 2004, attended the meeting. Melissa Adde and Bhawna Sharma performed the first formal monitoring of data for protocol patients enrolled at the Cancer Institute.
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