We are proud to announce that Shushan Hovsepyan, MD, Senior Vice President of OncoDaily and Co-Editor-in-Chief of OncoDaily Medical Journal, has been named a candidate for the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) Board of Directors for the 2026–2028 term.
Dr. Hovsepyan is among 24 candidates running for 14 seats on the UICC Board. The new Board will be elected by UICC full-member organisations as part of the 2026 UICC General Assembly, which will take place virtually on October 20, 2026.
Electronic voting will open on October 13, 2026, and close on October 20 at 14:30 CEST, during the General Assembly.
Dr. Hovsepyan’s candidacy brings a particularly young perspective to one of the leading governance bodies in global cancer control. Her work combines paediatric oncology, research, education, international collaboration and oncology communication.
We are proud to endorse her for the board, confident that she will bring a strong focus on childhood cancer, health equity, communication, and the perspective of an emerging generation of cancer leaders.
From Armenia to Italy, Austria and Belgium
Dr. Hovsepyan’s oncology path has spanned several countries and health systems.
Her journey began in Armenia, where she entered the field of paediatric oncology, before continuing in Italy, where she undertook clinical training at the Pediatric Oncology Unit of the National Cancer Institute of Milan. Her years in Milan played an important role in shaping her interest in paediatric sarcomas and rare tumours.
From Italy, her training continued in Austria, where she joined the paediatric oncology and haematology team at St. Anna Children’s Research Hospital in Vienna. She later moved to Belgium for a research fellowship at the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) in Brussels, with a focus on patient-reported outcomes. Her international education has also included the Effective Writing for Health Care postgraduate programme at Harvard Medical School.
An important part of that journey has also been the European School of Oncology (ESO). Dr. Hovsepyan first joined the College of the European School of Oncology as a fellow and later became an ESCO Graduate. She subsequently became involved in its Career Development Working Group, moving from participating in educational programmes herself to contributing to opportunities for other young oncology professionals.
That transition reflects a broader shift in her career: from building her own international oncology experience to increasingly taking on roles in education, mentorship, research collaboration and leadership.
Growing Role in Global Oncology
Today, Dr. Hovsepyan holds several roles across international oncology. She is Co-Chair of the SIOP Global Health Network Research and Innovation Working Group, Innovation and Development Director at the Immune Oncology Research Institute, Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Paediatric Oncology and Haematology at Yerevan State Medical University, and Co-Lead of the European Soft Tissue Sarcoma Group Rhabdoid Tumour Working Group. She also serves on the ASCO Annual Meeting Scientific Programme Committee for Paediatric Oncology.
Global oncology and research capacity building have become an increasingly important part of her work. At the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting, she presented on global health policy in paediatric oncology, while another of her recent research projects examined global inequities in sarcoma clinical trials.
Her research has also addressed rare paediatric tumours, adolescent and young adult cancer, telemedicine, cancer care during conflict and the challenges faced by patients in resource-limited settings. Through these projects, her work has increasingly focused not only on individual diseases, but also on the wider systems that determine who can access high-quality cancer care and participate in cancer research.
She has also been involved in international initiatives aimed at strengthening collaboration and research networks across different regions.
Beyond Clinical Oncology
Through OncoDaily, Dr. Hovsepyan’s work extends well beyond clinical and academic oncology. As Senior Vice President of OncoDaily and Co-Editor-in-Chief of OncoDaily Medical Journal, she is closely involved in shaping conversations across the global cancer community.
A major part of her work is speaking directly with people who are influencing the future of oncology — including leading oncologists, researchers, pharmaceutical executives, university leaders, advocates and policymakers. Through these interviews and discussions, she brings forward important questions about cancer care, research, access, innovation and leadership, while giving different parts of the oncology community a place in the same conversation.
She is also involved in efforts to make high-quality cancer research more visible and accessible. Through OncoDaily Medical Journal and OncoDaily’s wider editorial work, she helps connect scientific work with the broader oncology community, with a focus on making research easier to discover, understand and discuss beyond traditional academic circles.
Within OncoDaily, Dr. Hovsepyan works closely with a team of around 60 people, bringing together editors, journalists, researchers, physicians, designers and other contributors working across different areas of oncology communication.
She also served for three years as Co-Convenor of Global OncoThon, including the 2026 edition held on World Cancer Day in collaboration with UICC, which brought together leaders and organisations from across the cancer community around shared global cancer priorities.
Her work has received growing international recognition. In 2025, Dr. Hovsepyan received the Global Women in Healthcare Rising Star Award from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Young SIOP Rising Star Award.
A Young Voice for the UICC Board
As one of the younger candidates for the UICC Board, Dr. Hovsepyan would bring the perspective of a new generation of cancer leaders. Yet her career already spans clinical oncology, international research, education, scientific communication and leadership across several global oncology organisations.
That combination of experience and a younger, forward-looking perspective could bring new energy and a fresh way of thinking to the UICC Board. Dr. Hovsepyan has grown professionally at a time when oncology is becoming more connected, digital and global, and when communication, cross-border collaboration, and the meaningful involvement of younger professionals are becoming increasingly important to how the cancer community works.
Her background in Armenia has also shaped the way she approaches global oncology. Coming from a country where resources and access to specialised cancer care can differ considerably from those in major high-income cancer centres, while also having trained and worked within leading European institutions, has allowed her to experience oncology from both perspectives. This gives her a practical understanding of why strategies developed at the global level must also be relevant and applicable in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
This perspective is reflected in her work on research capacity, disparities in clinical research, childhood cancer, and international collaboration. Rather than viewing global oncology only through the experience of established cancer centres, her work has consistently included the challenges faced by countries with fewer resources and the need to build stronger connections between them and the wider international cancer community.
For the UICC Board, this could mean bringing together experience with a forward-looking mindset: understanding the realities facing LMICs while thinking strategically about how technology, communication, research collaboration and a new generation of cancer professionals can contribute to the future of global cancer control.
Her candidacy therefore represents more than generational change. It brings a perspective shaped by different health systems, different countries, and different areas of oncology, with the potential to add a new voice, new energy, and a broader global outlook to the UICC Board.
We are proud to see Shushan Hovsepyan among the candidates for the UICC Board of Directors for 2026–2028, and wish her success in the upcoming election.
Read further on OncoDaily: UICC Board Elections 2026: Meet the Candidates
