QCS participates in World Cancer Congress 2022
The Qatar Cancer Society (QCS) has participated in the World Cancer Congress 2022, a hybrid event at International Conference Centre Geneva in Geneva, with a delegation headed by QCS chairman Sheikh Dr Khalid bin Jabor al-Thani, programmes manager Prof Muhanned Harrah, and Dr Hadi Mohamed Abu Rasheed, scientific adviser and head of the Cancer Awareness and Professional Development Department.
The QCS was the only cancer civil society from the GCC and Mena (Middle East and North Africa) region that participated in the event.
The QCS shared its efforts in cancer awareness, and its booth highlighted Qatar’s success in hosting the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
The QCS delegation participated in two sessions.
The first one was on Stories Of People Living With Cancer As An Innovative Methodology For Medical Education, which was co-organised with Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar and Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar.
The second session was Because Cancer Don’t Wait, Childhood Cancer Awareness, Despite Pandemic, Is A Must, co-organised with the Children’s Cancer Centre of Lebanon and Childhood Cancer International.
The congress was attended in person by some 2,000 scientists, medical specialists, non-governmental organisation (NGO) and civil society representatives, government officials, ministers of health, and high-level United Nations representatives, and many others attended online from 120 countries.
The congress included more than 200 sessions.
Some of the topics covered in the congress include Advances in Universal Health Coverage and cancer control, Tobacco control – countering industry influence, regulating new products such as e-cigarettes, Improving access to cancer medicines in low-income regions, The impact of Covid-19, Hearing from people living with cancer – breaking the taboo around cancer and multidisciplinary survivorship care, Advances in cancer screening, diagnostics, and treatment, including vaccines, immunotherapy, artificial intelligence and precision medicine, Abstract-led sessions showcasing implementation science, and The threat of antimicrobial resistance for cancer patients, the need for infection control and the rational use of drugs.
During the congress, expertise was exchanged between members of the QCS delegation and several officials, most notably Elisabete Weiderpass, director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer at the World Health Organisation (WHO); Richard Shadyac, chief executive officer of ALSAC, the awareness and fundraising branch of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital; Isabel Mestres, chief executive of the City Cancer Challenge Foundation; Maria Barbara Leon, the chief operating officer of the Union for International Cancer Control; and Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, the first lady of Nigeria’s Kebbi State and chief executive officer of the Medicaid Cancer Foundation/First Ladies Against Cancer.