Ophira Ginsburg: Why ASCO Africa Was a Standout Meeting for Cancer Equity

Ophira Ginsburg, Provost’s Visiting Professor of Global Cancer Equity at Imperial College London, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“It’s a wrap! Part 5 of 7 from my West Africa work trip.

Best of American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Africa was a standout meeting, in my view, for several reasons:

1.  The science was concise and grounded in lived experience.
2.  Clinical trial results were examined through an African lens, asking:
3.  How many participants of African ancestry or Black participants were included?
   Were outcomes disaggregated—or even reported—by ethnicity?
   Are pathology services and biomarker testing available for treatments considered practice-changing elsewhere?
4.  There was frank discussion about the realities of cancer care in resource-constrained health systems, including out-of-pocket costs to lost wages.
5.  Most importantly, the meeting focused on solutions. Best practices were shared across institutions, countries, and sectors, with a strong emphasis on partnerships and the role of governments in advancing equitable, high-quality cancer care across the cancer continuum.

Congratulations AORTIC- Africa and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).”