Hesham ElGhazaly, Professor of Clinical Oncology at Ain Shams University, President of the Executive Board of the Egyptian Cancer Society, Chairman of Egypt’s Presidential Initiative for Women’s Health, and Candidate for the UICC Board of Directors, shared his vision for advancing equity in cancer care ahead of the UICC Board of Directors elections.
“We really believe that equity in cancer care is extremely important, and we are really proud and honored by what we achieved in Egypt by decreasing the mortality in liver cancer and in breast cancer.
We’ve gone through a huge transformation of cancer control in breast cancer. We have advanced breast cancer 80% in 2019 and dropped to only 20% now. Also, decreasing the time to diagnosis from more than 240 days to only 49, and ensuring, with the political will, that all patients will be treated in a multidisciplinary tumor board.
And not only this, but enhancing access to treatment, enhancing equity, either in rural areas or the urban areas.
So, it’s extremely important to transfer this to all other countries, and we are ensuring to do this in other neighboring countries, in Algeria, in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Indonesia, in Malaysia, in Colombia.
So, we are trying to be the voice of the LMICs in the next board of the UICC and ensuring this equity.
We are one world against cancer, and no one can work alone. With collaboration, we can achieve more, have access more, and not only in early cancer, but also in metastatic cancer.
And we believe that when there is will, there is a way.
Thank you very much, and I hope to have all your support in the next elections.”
Read further on OncoDaily: UICC Board Elections 2026: Meet the Candidates
