INCTR’s Annual Meeting

Opening ceremony of INCTR Annual Meeting in Chennai.

INCTR’s Annual Meeting has become an important event which serves to bring together INCTR Associate Members from many different countries to strengthen international collaboration in all aspects of cancer treatment and research, to report progress that has been made in INCTR projects in the last year and to identify focal points for discussion that may lead to the development of new projects. While it is essential that key figures in cancer treatment and research are involved in these discussions, it is also essential, in the interests of ensuring long-term viability of programs, that young health professionals also participate. Professional education - including continuing education - underlies much of the meeting content, and although primacy is given to an exchange of views among health professionals from a variety of backgrounds, didactic elements are included in order to provide a foundation on which discussion can be based.

It must be recognized that cancer control, although founded on the same basic principles throughout the world, must contend with even greater obstacles in developing countries than those present in more affluent nations - obstacles that ultimately arise from the economic difficulties faced by the populations susceptible to cancer, and the paucity of resources available to study predisposing factors, prevention, early detection and treatment. For these reasons, essential research relevant to cancer control in developing countries must, in part or in whole, be conducted in those countries themselves, where the pattern of cancer may be regionally unique, where the lifestyles, nutritional status and co-morbidities of potential and actual victims of cancer differ so profoundly, and where the availability or access to treatment may be poor or even absent. It is also critically important to involve the entire family and local community in the process of cancer control - particularly since success to a large degree is dependent upon the avoidance of cancer, or its detection at the earliest possible stage of its evolution - even before it has become a true “invasive” cancer. Both are dependent upon knowledge of the symptoms and signs of cancer (by health professionals and the population at large), and in those cases where it is known to be beneficial, screening of asymptomatic populations.

INCTR's Awardees, 2005. Audience during plenary session.

INCTR’s annual meeting is unique in having, as its entire focus, the problems encountered in developing countries, and in bringing together experts both from within those countries and from affluent nations to discuss possible approaches, as well as the evaluation of such approaches, to the control of cancer; a problem that is becoming more and more immediate as communicable diseases are overcome, and populations age and adopt the bad habits of affluent societies, particularly smoking.

In addition to the INCTR Award Lectures and oral presentations of participants' own work, this year’s meeting featured a series of presentations on cancers that are particularly frequent in Asia, but also in many other countries in less developed world regions, and several discussions pertaining to more general issues of cancer management. A plenary session in which INCTR members presented their own work was held, and posters were viewed in the course of the meeting. Two workshops were held, one on acute lymphoblastic leukemia and another on breast cancer, as well as consensus panel discussion and a multidisciplinary conference.

Awards Information

Two INCTR awards are presented at the annual meeting to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to cancer treatment or research in one or more developing countries. The purpose of these awards is not simply to recognize and honor the recipients, although this is certainly an important element, but also to show, by their example, that much can be accomplished even when resources are limited. It is hoped that their work and philosophy, brought through the award lectures to a broader audience than would otherwise be the case, will inspire others to greater efforts.

The Nazli Gad-el-Mawla Award is made for outstanding contributions to cancer control by an individual from a country with limited resources.

THANKS TO SPONSORS INCTR would like to thank the following sponsors for their support of the Annual Meeting 2005: AstraZeneca, Agfa, The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, MSD, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the National Cancer Institute, GSK GlaxoSmithKline, the Institut Pasteur Brussels, the Jiv Daya Foundation and a number of Indian corporations.

The 2005 Award recipient is Dr. Suresh Advani. Suresh H. Advani is qualified in medicine at the Bombay University in 1966. After training in internal medicine and hematology-oncology at the J.J. Hospital, Grant Medical College in Mumbai, he undertook further training in oncology in the USA. He joined the Oncology Department at the Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) in 1974 and, in 1985, became the chief of the Department of Medical Oncology. Under his stewardship, the department developed capacities for providing modern medical and pediatric oncology services with laboratories for hematology, cytogenetics and molecular diagnostics, a day care chemotherapy unit, and patient counseling services. He played an important role in extablishing the Doctorate of Medicine (DM) in Medical Oncology at TMH (Mumbai University) and trained many successful oncologists. Dr. Advani is recognized as a pioneer in the establishment of bone marrow transplantation in India. He is active in medical and academic research and has over 640 publications. He is the recipient of many international and national awards including the Padmashri Award, the highest civilian honor, which is granted by the President of India. In 2002, Dr. Advani retired from Tata Memorial Hospital. He is presently the Director of Medical Oncology at Jaslok Hospital & Research Center and the Chief Medical Oncologist at the Asian Institute of Oncology.

The Paul P. Carbone Award in International Oncology is made for outstanding contributions to oncology or cancer research by an individual from a resource-rich country.

The 2005 Award recipient is Dr. Dennis Wright. Dennis Wright qualified in medicine at the University of Bristol in 1956. After internships in pediatrics and surgery he began training in clinical pathology. In 1960 he was appointed Lecturer in Pathology at Makerere Medical School in Uganda. He worked with Denis Burkitt, helping to delineate the pathology of Burkitt lymphoma and developing a lifelong interest in the pathology of malignant lymphomas. He was awarded an MD for his thesis on malignant lymphomas in Uganda. In 1968 he was appointed Reader in Pathology at the University of Birmingham and in 1971 acceded to the Chair of Pathology at the newly established medical school at the University of Southampton. During his 25 years in Southampton the study of lymphomas was transformed by developments in immunohistochemistry, cytogenetics and molecular biology. The concept of lymphomas of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissues (MALT lymphomas) was developed in Southampton, as also was the specific nature of the lymphoma associated with coeliac disease (enteropathy associated T-cell lymphoma). Professor Wright played an active part in the establishment of the European Association of Hematopathology and was the second person to hold the Presidency of that association. He retired in 1996 but remains active in lymphoma diagnosis and research as an emeritus professor.