Gevorg Tamamyan, Editor-in-Chief of OncoDaily, and the President of SIOP Asia and POEM Group, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“It was 11 a.m. I was passing by the registration desk and there was a huge line in front of it. This was the second day of the BGICC-Breast Gynecological & Immunooncology International Cancer Conference in Cairo, Egypt.
Usually, you expect scenes like this at ASCO or ESMO Annual Congresses. Seeing it here was both nicely surprising and deeply inspiring.
5,000 people from around the world.
Presidents of major cancer organizations – UICC, IARC, ASCO, ESMO, ASTRO, IASLC, EORTC, ESGO, AORTIC, CACA… and that was only the beginning of the list.
Behind all of this stands Hesham ElGhazaly, President of BGICC and President of the Egyptian Cancer Society.
As I said during the morning address: Hesham, my dear friend – you made it. Many of us had ideas and plans to bring the presidents of major cancer societies together, but you were the one who actually did it. Congratulations on an extraordinary congress. You and your amazing team are doing remarkable work and this will only grow bigger.
Another important observation: unlike many similar settings, during the Presidential Session, Egypt’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health, Prof. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, stayed for the whole session. He listened carefully to every speaker and concluded with an inspirational keynote address. This is a model worth replicating, anywhere in the world.
It was a true honor and pleasure to moderate the Presidential Session together with my dear friend and mentor Matti Aapro.
And a special word of thanks to our OncoDaily team on the ground – Sona Karamyan and Mariam Khachatryan – and to the team beyond Cairo, who have been covering the congress with a great dedication.”
