Qatar University (QU) hosted the 6th annual meeting of The Middle Eastern Association For Cancer Research (MEACR) from December 3-5.
The 3-day conference was organised by MEACR in collaboration with QU-Health (Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health Sciences), Biomedical Research Centre and National Centre for Cancer Care and Research and supported by Qatar National Research Fund.
It brought together clinicians and cancer researchers from Qatar, Algeria, Canada, Egypt, France, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, USA, and Yemen. They discussed and shared their research and experiences on a wide range of topics related to human cancers.
The first day’s programe featured four sessions titled “Cancer Genetics & Circulating Cancer Cells”, “Cancer Genetics & Gene Targets”, “Microbiota/Oncovirus & Cancer”, and “Anticancer Drug Delivery & Treatment”.
Presentations focused on a wide range of issues such as “The Impact Of Human Genome Project On Our Lives during 21st Century and beyond”, “Circulating Tumor Cells as a Prognostic Biomarker for Disease Progression in Breast Cancer”, “Genomic Profiling of Thyroid Cancer Reveals a Role for Thyroglobulin in Metastasis”, “HPV Infection and Genetic Predisposition in Cervical Cancer in Saudi Arabia”, “Novel Approach to Target Aggressive Cancer Cells Using Non-Toxic Compounds” and many more.
The second day’s programme included four sessions on “Cancer Immunology & Molecular Cancer Classification”, “Cancer Epidemiology & Pathogenesis”, “Cancer Therapy I & Cancer Patients’ Education”, and “Cancer Therapy II & Cancer and Obesity”. Discussions focused on numerous topics such as “Immunotherapy Of Cancer: Opportunities, Obstacles and Impact of Tumor Microenvironment”, “Natural Killer Cell-Based Immunotherapy for Cancer Treatment”, “Trends in Colorectal Cancer Survival in Arab World, 1990-2009”, “Monoclonal Antibodies As Carriers for Delivery of Therapeutic Agents in Cancer: Factors Affecting Antigenic Accessibility”, and “P90 Ribosomal S6 Kinase: A potential Therapeutic Target in Lung Cancer” among many others.
All the abstracts presented during the conference will be published in the 6th volume of the Clinical Cancer Investigation Journal which will be issued in 2017.
QU vice-president for medical education Dr Egon Toft said, “I am impressed by the number of papers and diversity of topics; and confident that the coming few days will be enriching, stimulating and hopefully also enjoyable.It has been my interest to see the College of Medicine at Qatar University play a role in driving the momentum of collaboration in the medical field across the region.I think there is a lot to warrant such collaboration and even integration. However, the outlook is currently towards markets with a more established legacy in medical education and research, especially the US and Europe.”
