News - The First African-Middle Eastern Congress on Digestive Oncology

The First African-Middle Eastern Congress on Digestive Oncology

1st & 2nd February, 2008
Rabat, Morocco
Joerg Reichenberger, Johannesburg (South Africa)

The International Digestive Cancer Alliance (IDCA), the African Middle East Association of Gastroenterology (AMAGE) and their parent society, the World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO), organised the 1st African-Middle East Congress on Digestive Oncology, which was held on the 1st and 2nd February 2008 in Rabat/Morocco. Meinhard Classen (Germany) and Guido Tytgat (Netherlands) as organising directors created a meeting of superb clinical and scientific quality with over 300 participants from 45 countries. The congress was hosted and warmly welcomed by Ms Professor Naima Amrani, Director of the WGO Training Center and Head of the Department of Hepato-Gastroenterology at the University Mohammed V-Souissi of Rabat.

The postgraduate course on the first day focused on worldwide common cancer diseases like esophageal and colorectal cancer. The program was structured accordingly by IDCA with the mission of promoting screening, early detection, primary prevention and management including treatment of digestive cancers.

In order to allow a larger number of scientists and clinicians to benefit from the two full-day conference, major South African institutions in Durban (Nelson Mandela School of Medicine), Johannesburg (Wits Medical School) and Cape Town (Groote Schuur Hospital) were linked over the two days via video-conferencing.

A truly interactive discussion with local participants and the teleconferencing partners took place. The participating centers got the opportunity to present individual cases to the faculty which were followed by a lively discussion. Sandie Thomson co-ordinated the case presentations from Durban. Many thanks to the the presenters in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg for their excellent case presentations.

The main focus of the second day`s scientific symposium “Digestive Oncology” was the subject of cancer burdens in Africa, particularly the high incidence of viral hepatitis B and C related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), colorectal and esophageal cancers as well as gastric carcinoma. The faculty members included gastroenterologists, surgeons, medical oncologists and clinical researchers coming mostly from Africa as well as from Europe the Middle East and the United States.

The call for abstracts about scientific activities in digestive oncology in Africa and Middle East resulted in submission of over 100 abstracts and reflects the lively scientific activities in the region. The reviewed and selected abstracts were presented as posters, presidential posters or free paper presentations at the conference. (To give an overview about the scientific activity of the region, the abstracts of the presidential posters and free paper presentations will be available on the WGO website in due course.)

A highlight of the conference was the free paper presentation of A.M. El Hassan from Sudan about the history and research of Epstein Barr virus (EBV) related tumors. El Hassan was the pioneer, 45 years ago first describing the Burkitt`s lymphoma in Sudanese children caused by EBV.

A milestone of the congress was the presentation of the WGO- “Declaration of Rabat” to the audience, a document about a worldwide initiative to fight against viral hepatitis and liver cancer. This declaration will be presented to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva for approval.

Unfortunately, in Africa comparisons based upon relative frequency of different cancers are difficult, as African cancer registries are mostly based in relatively better equipped urban centers and, thus may not reflect the disease burden in the country as whole. Furthermore, cancer has not been a priority for health ministries in most African developing countries. Nutritional, parasitic and infectious diseases have presented a greater and more immediate challenge.

Due to this problem a platform for research, networking and experts in the field of digestive oncology in Africa and Middle East, the “African-Middle East Digestive Cancer Alliance” (AMDCA) was initiated by Meinhard Classen (IDCA) and founded at the conference. The AMDCA will be an opportunity for the region to interact cross-national by concentrating specific knowledge and research in the field of digestive oncology.

We all enjoyed a highly successful "First African Middle Eastern Congress on Digestive Oncology " at Rabat. We thank and congratulate Naima Amrani, Meinhard Classen and Guido Tytgat for professionally organising and hosting of this landmark conference.

Link: www.worldgastroenterology.org/idca-events

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