International Conferences & Seminars

QSCBC Project

QSCBC International Conferences & Seminars

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION WITH BHUTAN

Her Majesty the Queen Mother, Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuk of Bhutan. Left front: Tshenking Uden Penjor, Executive Director, Gyalyum Charitable Trust, accompanied by senior representatives of the Bhutan Ministry of Health and the visiting team to the QSCBC.

In 2022 the QSCBC invited a team of doctors, nurses, technicians (radiographers) and specialist biomedical equipment engineers from Bhutan, to do an advanced clinical training for six months. A special gift of a tomosynthesis 3D mammography machine will also be presented to Bhutan. The team have studied and worked closely alongside the doctors and nurses at the QSCBC Diagnostic Radiology Department at the centre, learning how to use the new equipment most effectively. The bio-engineer studied at the external service centre, focusing on how to maintain the donated equipment. The nurses studied and worked alongside the QSCBC chemotherapy nursing team. A radiologist and a surgeon will also undergo a year’s fellowship course at the QSCBC in 2023. The programme was a celebration of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday.

Her Majesty the Queen Mother Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuk of Bhutan, graciously gave an audience to the visiting team prior to their departure for Bangkok in June 2022. Her Majesty’s foundation, the Gyalyum Charitable Trust was instrumental in liaising for this project with the QSCBC.

QSCBC ARKORN HOONTRAKUL MEMORIAL LECTURE SERIES

The Arkorn Hoontrakul Memorial Lecture organised and hosted by the QSCBC invites leading academics internationally to present their research. The lecture series is open to all medical and nursing staff nationally and always free to delegates, to ensure everyone can attend. It serves to highlight the most modern ideas and innovative thinking, relevant to the specialties associated with breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and clinical research, including immunology. Presentations by specialists in other female cancers, including immunologists developing vaccines in other organs, other than the breast, broaden the scope of thinking. The QSCBC’s successful clinical research, with the development of a new approach to treat breast cancer using immunotherapy, first delivered at the St Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference 2021, has also been presented. The annual lecture in memory of Arkorn Hoontrakul who died of cancer, is sponsored by his wife Chompanute and family.

PROFESSOR YOLANDA DE VRIES

Dr Kris Chatamra, Professor de Vries, guest speaker, Chompanute Hoontrakul

Professor de Vries is based at the Department of Tumour Immunology at the Radboud University of Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences in the Netherlands. She was one of the first researchers to translate dendritic cell biology into potential clinical applications. She has a keen clinical research interest in DC-immunotherapy. Her work focuses on a clinical vaccination programme to treat melanoma and prostate cancer.

PROFESSOR IAN FRAZER

Professor Ian Frazer, Director of the Translational Research Institute Australia, a leading immunologist who developed the HPV vaccine, the foremost vaccine for cervical cancer, with Professor Jian Zhou (who won the Nobel Prize for this work). Professor Frazer was awarded the Australian of the Year Award in 2006 and the prestigious biannual Florey Medal.

PROFESSOR MARTINE PICCART-GEBHART

Professor Martine Piccart is the Scientific Director of Medicine at the Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels and Honorary Professor of Oncology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. As the co-founder of the significant Breast International Group (BIG) she initiated international cohort trials, including AURORA, a study on metastatic breast cancer and the HERA, MINDACT, and ALTTO clinical trials.
She was the past-president of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. She served on the boards of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and she is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the St Gallen International Breast Cancer Award Winner 2017. Her area of interest is the understanding of molecular alterations in metastatic breast cancer that correlate with disease progression and possible links to therapeutic resistance and drug development.

PROFESSOR MICHAEL BAUM

Professor Michael Baum, Professor Emeritus of Surgery and Visiting Professor of Medical Humanities at UCL, University College London, was previously at the Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital London. As a leading surgical oncologist in the field of breast cancer, he was honoured with the St Gallen Lifetime Achievement Award for his research. He led the highly significant and largest international trial ever organized, (ATAC drug trial), to ascertain if Anastrazole and Tamoxifen should be used in combination or alone; the results conclusively showed Anastrazole was better than Tamoxifen. He was the first to pioneer local wide excision surgery with intraoperative radiotherapy; this technique was first introduced to Thailand at the QSCBC twenty years ago.

DR STUART CURBISHLEY

Dr Stuart Curbishley PhD, has a particular interest in the field of immunotherapy, (using immune cells), to treat cancer and was invited as a specialist guest speaker to the QSCBC Precision Oncology International Forum and the Oncological Frontiers International Forum 2022. He is Director of the Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, Centre for Liver Research at the University of Birmingham in the UK. He is a liver immunologist closely involved in developing vaccination approaches to treat different cancers, particularly hepatocellular carcinoma.