Gevorg Tamamyan: Opening Address at POEM Group 2025 Scientific Meeting in Amman

Gevorg Tamamyan, Editor-in-chief of OncoDaily and the President of SIOP Asia Continental branch, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Opening address at POEM Group 2025 Scientific Meeting in Amman, Jordan.

Read Full Opening Adress.

“Thank you so much. Your Royal Highness Princess Ghida Talal. My dear mentors, Dr. Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, Dr. Raul Ribeiro, Dr. Sima Jeha, Dr. Ibrahim Qaddoumi. I’m getting emotional always when I’m talking about my mentors. Where is Scott? Dr. Scott Howard. I hope I didn’t forget anyone. If I did, sorry for that. Our Madam President, dear Dr. Rawad Rihani, local organizing committee chairperson. Dear friends, colleagues. I was going to write a speech, but I decided to make it without the paper to make it a little bit more emotional.

It was 13 years ago. I was a fellow, when I first entered the doors of St. Jude. It was something new to me, but it was amazing. And at that time, it was the International Outreach Program led by Dr. Ribeiro, and I was finding myself in the center of excellence of something, something big. And first of all, the thing what I got from St. Jude, it was the people. The people who later on helped me a lot during my whole career. The next, I think it was the other year, St. Jude has an amazing platform called Cure for Kids, and there was a discussion through Cure for Kids, and I was discussing, it was my first neuroblastoma patient, and I had some questions, and my mic was not working, and there was a person in the call, she said, I’m going to read your slides, don’t worry. It was my dear friend, I don’t see her, but she’s going to arrive, Raya Saab.

So that’s how, I mean, we got acquainted, and later on, I got an email that we are forming a group, and it would be great if Armenia also joins. I was a fellow, and my mentor, who was the head of my department, got an invitation, and by chance, his English was not that good, and so I came as a translator. And I didn’t have money to come, and I think St. Jude or AUB covered it. Well, it’s the same, I guess, who covered. So I came, and that’s how my journey with POEM started. So POEM for me, first of all, is the people. It’s all about people. As I mentioned about St. Jude, it’s all about people.

When I think about St. Jude, of course, I think all the people who are helping us daily. Right now, Ibrahim is looking at me, and you write him at 2 a.m. in the night, it’s his 2 a.m. or my 2 a.m., he replies in 15 minutes. And with his help, we built the pediatric neuro-oncology program in Armenia. And we did not have any experience with neuro-oncology, and I asked him one thing, would you train us to treat kids with brain tumors? He said, of course, I will. And that’s how we began. And we have now one of the strongest programs, I can say, in the neuro-oncology, and it’s because of him.

When I think about St. Jude, I think about Dr. Carlos is sitting here, he was my mentor at Dana-Farber, another great institution, and I appeared in his office out of blue with the coffee in my hand. And he was very tired, but he still, it was 6 p.m., but he sit and listened to all my stories about all the things what was happening. He said, I will help you, of course, come first to Dana-Farber, and then we are continuing. And I’m proud to say we’re the first country to join St. Jude Global, and we’ll continue to contribute for that. Of course, Dr. Sima Jeha, our mother of POEM. Yeah, everyone knows that. It’s not a surprise. I mean, we fight all the time about different things because she’s taking care of us like a mother.

About Dr. Raul Ribeiro, whenever you write him, like usually I write at the Christmas times, he writes such a beautiful email back that like, you know. And where is Scott? He’s over there. My older daughter, Charlize, loves to call him Scotty. Sorry for that, but she loves you a lot. And he’s all the time traveling to Armenia and helping everyone.

So POEM and St. Jude is the people, is the people around. It’s an honor for me, really. It’s an honor for me to be elected, to be the president of this beautiful organization, to this wonderful organization, to be part of it.

And it’s a great responsibility, first of all. When I was introduced, I didn’t do much, honestly. It’s like, I mean, I just started, but hopefully, all together, we will do a lot of great things for our kids with cancer, which we are doing daily, and we’ll continue to do that way.

Thank you very much, everyone. Thanks for hosting this amazing event in a beautiful and wonderful city. Your Royal Highness, I have the same feeling towards Jordanians.
And thank you very much. And welcome to POEM.
Thank you.”

More posts featuring Gevorg Tamamyan on OncoDaily.