Fourth Annual Emirates Oncology Conference ends, providing boost to cancer treatment and care in the GCC

Abu Dhabi, UAE, 22 November 2015: The fourth edition of the industry-leading Emirates Oncology Conference drew to a close yesterday, with another record number of delegates from the healthcare profession specializing or related to oncology across the Middle East. The conference aimed to gather the best and leading experts in oncology for the better treatment and care of patients in the GCC.

The delegates attended more than 110 sessions over the course of three days, led by 80 expert speakers from around the world including the Middle East, Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.  The speakers were hand-picked as leaders in their respective fields of cancer treatment and care, each able to give global and regional perspectives on industry-shaping insights and innovations. 

The 4th Emirates Oncology Conference: Personalizing Cancer Treatment, A Multidisciplinary Approach was held at Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi and hosted by the regional cancer referral centre, Tawam Hospital, in affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine, and SEHA.  The sessions covered gastrointestinal, hematology, breast cancer, oncology nursing, lung cancer, palliative care, supportive care and geriatric cancer, urological cancer, gynecologic oncology, head and neck cancer and pediatric oncology. During the three-day conference, case studies, workshops and interactive forums were held.

Closing the conference, Dr Mohammed Jaloudi, Chair, Emirates Oncology Conference, said: “The success of this conference only confirms the growing importance of the need to address care and treatment for cancer patients. We are particularly pleased that all participants - be it the speakers or attendees, are very eager to exchange knowledge for the benefit of everyone in the oncology field and most especially to patients as they go back to work with fresh inputs.”

Dr. Mattar Al Daramaki SEHA CEO said, “It is quite an achievement to have been able to bring together over 1,000 healthcare professionals who enlightened us on the latest in cancer treatment. We are committed in ensuring that all healthcare professionals under our wings will learn from the best in the field. SEHA has been quite successful in attracting great medical talents to work with us and we have a high retention of these professionals sealing our reputation as employer of choice in the medical field. We are also proud to attract a number of Emiratis to join SEHA for us to develop national leadership as well as support Emiratisation efforts of the UAE government. 

As we continue to employ some of the best healthcare professionals, we have been able to perform with success, delicate surgeries that help save our patients’ lives and this goes side-by-side with our drive to attract the best in the medical field to be part of our team.”

Just this year, three successful jaw and neck resection operations were performed at Tawam Hospital to patients with stage 4 tongue cancer. The team was led by UAE national Dr. Mohamed Ahmad bin Lahej Al Falasi, Chair and Consultant Physician in Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at Tawam Hospital. 

In addition, Tawam Hospital also performed advanced minimally-invasive surgeries for the gastrointestinal tract, removed the largest tumour (13 kg) on a patient in the hospital’s history, completed intricate reconstructive microsurgeries and launched breast reconstruction with microsurgery technique. With its highly-qualified personnel, Tawam Hospital received a three-year international accreditation from National Accreditation Program for Breast Cancer (NAPBC) and now offers lung cancer screening - a first in the UAE.  

Tawam Hospital has the Tawam Oncology Center that offers patients the latest technologies to diagnose, stage and monitor cancers, including high-resolution spiral CT, MRI, Nuclear Medicine, PET-CT scans along with state-of-art pathology services. The Oncology Department has the Medical Oncology/Haematology, Radiation Oncology, Palliative Care Program, Surgical Oncology, Tawam Breast Care Center and has two infrastructures for cancer registry.

Tawam Hospital is part of the SEHA Health System owned and operated by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) which is responsible for the curative activities of all the public hospitals and clinics of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.