The St James’s Hospital and Trinity College Dublin International Cancer Conference
Posted on: 14 May 2008
The St James’s Hospital and Trinity College Dublin International Cancer Conference took place on May 7-9 last at Dublin Castle. The Conference entitled ‘Striving for Success in Cancer Care’ which was opened by the Minister of Health and Children, Mary Harney featured internationally renowned leaders in the field.
Over the course of the three-day conference, some of TCD’s academics made significant contributions. In addressing the importance of the conference Professor of Experimental Haematology, Mark Lawler and co-organiser of the event said: “This conference has challenged us on a number of issues as Irish specialists. It is clear that enrolling patients on cancer clinical trials is the best way to ensure that Irish patents receive 21st-century cancer care. We are now entering a new era of molecular targeted therapy where identifying the genes and proteins that give rise to certain cancers allows the tailor-made design of drugs to target these ‘Cancer Gene Targets’. Our challenge over the next five years is to translate these discoveries into the clinic, but we also need to think about cancer prevention. Cancer prevention is a significant challenge but also a significant opportunity and combining lifestyle changes with new approaches to detect and treat cancers at an earlier stage will lead to better survival for Irish patients”.
Professor of Clinical Oncology Donal Hollywood at St Luke’s Hospital said: “The opportunities to improve cancer care in Ireland will be significantly improved following the transfer of the ‘cancer budget’ to the National Cancer Control Plan (NCCP). There is an absolute requirement for the National Plan to stimulate and reward ongoing research on new treatments and the expected improvement in cancer care and patient survival. The new €500 million programme for Radiation Oncology enables a unique opportunity to develop new patient services that should be among the best in the world”.
Professor John Reynolds at St. James’s Hospital said: “Every aspect of cancer care from access to treatment, the attainment of better cure rates and ensuring a better quality of life are measurable. A culture of audit that embraces this metric is essential to achieve and prove quality throughout the new National Cancer Program”.
In her address to the conference, Minister Mary Harney said: “This conference comes at an opportune time in the development of cancer services in Ireland. The theme of the conference is ‘Striving for Success in Cancer Care’ and this Government is endeavouring to achieve this through its Strategy for Cancer Control and the implementation by the Health Service Executive of its National Cancer Control Programme. Cancer patients should receive multidisciplinary care from cancer specialists working together as an integrated team. At a time of great change in our cancer services, this conference gives us the opportunity to consider how to optimise the sharing of best practice in the area of cancer control. The most important objective is that cancer patients get the best in diagnostics and treatment and as result are given every opportunity for optimising treatment outcomes and survival rates.”