Oncology meet sheds light on cancer treatment, diagnosis

MUSCAT: The 9th Muscat International Oncology conference opened on Wednesday. Organised by the National Oncology Center at the Royal Hospital (RH), Dr Mohammed Saif al Hosni, Ministry of Health’s Under-Secretary of Health Affairs, inaugurated the conference at the Grand Millennium, Muscat. The conference hosts 48 lecturers from 15 countries, included seven scientific sessions with 58 working papers that shed light on spectrum of topics related to oncology such as cancer treatments and diagnosis, chemical therapy, cancer surgery, radiation therapy, nursing oncology, and the palliative care for patients during the treatment period. The two-day conference aims at familiarising the participants with the latest advancements in cancer diagnosis and treatment, as well as exchanging experiences with the world’s senior physicians. It further aims at strengthening awareness among practitioners and allied health professionals on how to deal with the disease according to latest standards. The inauguration was followed by two keynote lectures on patients’ access to treatment and its association to health policy decision making, and epidemiology, prevention and screening of Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. It is worth noted that prior to the opening, a workshop on health economics was held on Tuesday that addressed the topic of health economics, implementation of health technology assessment, and steps of economic evaluation. Parallel to the conference, two workshops are being conducted on radiation oncology and physics, and nursing oncology. Dr Al Hosni launched the cancer cases statistics in the Sultanate. The book is annually prepared by the MoH Cancer Registry department and contains the number of new cancer cases, patients’ residence, and percentage of each type of the disease. The book facilitates the establishment of plans to meet the challenges represented in early detection of the disease and selecting the best treatment methods that increase curing. Dr Qasim Al Salmi, RH Director-General, launched the logo of the Global Royal Hospital Conference, that will be held from February 2-5, 2018. Later, Dr Hosni and the attendees toured the exhibition.