Health experts, medical professionals, and various officials are convening in Kigali from March 28-29 to discuss cancer care, research, and education in Africa. They will also focus on addressing disparities, promoting collaboration, and driving transformative changes on the continent concerning tackling the issue of cancer. Hosted at IRCAD Rwanda, the E3 International Cancer Conference, is an event that seeks to explore the interdisciplinary field of research, offering an advanced educational programme for innovative research and technological advancements in the health sector. Held under the theme “Bridging the Gap: Advancing Cancer Care, Research, and Education in Africa beyond the Post-COVID Era”, the conference aims to catalyse transformative changes in the landscape of cancer-related activities in Africa. It brings together experts from Africa, the USA, India, and so on. Speaking at the conference, Dr Albert Tuyishime, the head of the Diseases Prevention and Control Department at Rwanda Biomedical Centre, also weighed in on the issue of cancer in the world. “If you look at estimates by the WHO, in 2020, there were 19.3 million new cases of cancer and 9.9 million cancer-related deaths,” he noted. Mr John Koshy, the Managing Director of the organizing company of the E3 International Cancer Conference, said there is “an urgent need to build bridges that connect us, transcend boundaries, and lead us to a future where cancer is no longer a death sentence.” The event aims at playing a role in addressing the existing disparities and fostering collaboration, so as to contribute significantly to improving the overall outcomes for cancer patients and advancing the understanding of cancer in the African context. Addressing the participants, Dr Jacques Morescaux, Founder of IRCAD, talked about making use of high-tech systems like artificial intelligence, endoscopic images, virtual reality, and NBI images not only for early cancer detection but treatment too. “With such systems, it is estimated that the accuracy of early cancer detection is over 90 per cent, far exceeding the ability of general doctors,” he noted. Referring to strides made in countries like Japan and China regarding the use of high-tech to do things like remote surgeries, Morescaux pointed out the need to learn from such countries. “That is absolutely revolutionary and we want to do the same,” he said. The conference seeks to examine the role of technology, artificial intelligence, and digital health tools in cancer research, diagnosis, treatment, and patient care with a special focus on colorectal cancers. Technological innovations of the twentieth century have provided medicine and surgery with new tools for education and therapy definition. Some experts reckon that by combining medical imaging and virtual reality, patient-specific applications providing preoperative surgical simulation have become possible. Some speakers at the event talked about the problem of cancer that is affecting the world, and the need to address it. Among the speakers, Dr Senait Kebede, an adjunct associate professor of Global Health at Emory University, USA, said the burden of cancer is escalating everywhere but “the increase is alarming in low and middle-income countries.” Conference Keynote Speaker, Dr Jerry Ndumbalo, a consultant clinical and radiation oncologist from Tanzania, called upon governments to expand universal health coverage, as well as incorporate cancer care into essential benefits packages to reduce out-of-pocket expenditures for essential therapies for citizens with cancer. “Some people are selling their land to finance their health in some countries,” he added. The conference is continuing on March 29, and speakers are expected to tackle several topics ranging from exploring innovative approaches to delivering cancer treatments, including telemedicine, mobile health technologies, and community-based care models.
