Editor's Word

Dear Colleagues,

I am very pleased to announce the successful conduct of “The Third Combined Gulf Cancer Conference, Quality Care: New Horizons”, held on 7-9 December 2019 in Bahrain. The conference was hosted by Bahrain Cancer Society under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sabika bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa. This is the 3rd edition of the GFFCC Combined Conference series in collaboration with the Gulf Center for Cancer Control of the GCC Council of Health Ministers. The conference was attended by doctors and international experts who presented their regional and global experiences in national programs for early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. It is expected that the recommendations in this conference would help decision makers in the health sector to launch scientific-based programs to combat cancer in their respective countries and in the gulf region. 

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In accordance with the recent GFFCC Board decision to launch the Gulf Federation Cancer Research Group, we are inviting all GCC oncologist to collaborate with the proposed multicentric clinical trial on “Concomitant Immune Check Point Inhibitor with Radiochemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer: Phase II”.  This is an open-label non-randomized trial focused on locally advanced head and neck cancer (HNC). 

This trial will try to fill the gaps in the ongoing sister trials like efficacy of shorter immunotherapy course (rather than 4-12 months after finishing radical chemoradiation) and  also to validate the data and results in our population (HNC in Eastern countries and among Asian showed different clinical and biological characteristics e.g. mostly HPV negative, related to tobacco chewing and poor nutritional status).

The estimated primary completion date is on 30 September 2021. Please visit www.clinicaltrials.gov (Registration No. NCT03532737) for detailed information and contact the GFFCC email for inquiries.