The fourth edition of the industry-leading Emirates Oncology Conference drew to a close on Saturday, with a record number of healthcare professionals specialising in oncology across the Middle East attending the event.

The conference aimed to gather the best and leading experts in oncology for the better treatment and care of patients in the GCC.

The delegates attended almost 100 sessions over the course of three days, led by 94 expert speakers from around the world including the Middle East, Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. The speakers were handpicked as leaders in their respective fields of cancer treatment and care, each able to give global and regional perspectives on industry-shaping insights and innovations.

The conference convened under the theme, "Personalising Cancer Treatment, A Multidisciplinary Approach'' at Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, and was hosted by the regional cancer referral centre, Tawam Hospital, one of Abu Dhabi Health Services Company's (SEHA) hospitals.

The sessions covered gastrointestinal, haematology, breast cancer, oncology nursing, lung cancer, palliative care, supportive care and geriatric cancer, urological cancer, gynaecologic oncology, head and neck cancer and paediatric oncology. During the three-day conference, case studies were discussed, and workshops and interactive forums were organised.

"It is quite an achievement to have been able to bring together over 2,500 healthcare professionals who enlightened us on the latest in cancer treatment. We are committed in ensuring that all healthcare professionals under our wings will learn from the best in the field. SEHA has been quite successful in attracting great medical talents to work with us and we have a high retention of these professionals sealing our reputation as employer of choice in the medical field. We are also proud to attract a number of Emiratis to join SEHA for us to develop national leadership as well as support Emiratisation efforts of the UAE government,'' said Dr. Anwar Sallam, Acting Group Deputy Chief of Staff at SEHA.

''As we continue to employ some of the best healthcare professionals, we have been able to perform with success, delicate surgeries that help save our patients’ lives and this goes side-by-side with our drive to attract the best in the medical field to be part of our team," he added.

Closing the conference, Dr Mohammed Jaloudi, Chair, Emirates Oncology Conference, said, "The success of this conference only confirms the growing importance of the need to address care and treatment for cancer patients. We are particularly pleased that all participants – be it the speakers or attendees, are very eager to exchange knowledge for the benefit of everyone in the oncology field and most especially to patients as they go back to work with fresh inputs."

Last year, three successful jaw and neck resection operations were performed at Tawam Hospital to patients with stage 4 tongue cancer.

In addition, Tawam Hospital also performed advanced minimally-invasive surgeries for the gastrointestinal tract, removed the largest tumour (13 kg) from a patient in the hospital’s history, completed intricate reconstructive microsurgeries and launched breast reconstruction with microsurgery technique. With its highly-qualified personnel, Tawam Hospital received a three-year international accreditation from National Accreditation Program for Breast Cancer (NAPBC) and now offers lung cancer screening – a first in the UAE.