Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As the new President of SIOP, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Ottawa, Canada, for our 55th Annual SIOP Congress. I know that the Local Organising Committee, led by Dr Donna Johnston, will do a great job in hosting the congress in their city at a wonderful time of the year to appreciate Canada’s natural beauty and the friendship of its people. The Scientific Committee is creating a wide-ranging programme of exceptional speakers and symposium topics that will appeal to you all.
We are aware of the financial barriers to attend to a SIOP congress, especially from low and middle-income countries. Whilst the congress must cover its costs, we are continuously working with our partners to increase our support for scholarships especially for the SIOP Young Investigators’ group. Please do apply for these if you are eligible and don’t forget to apply for your entry visa to Canada in plenty of time if you need one, including nationals of countries eligible for the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme.
The SIOP 2023 annual congress in Canada is the place to meet new people and share experiences and learning. SIOP and Canada have strong historical links ranging from past presidents, chairs of different committees and networks and a record of memorable congresses. The Canadian groups have made substantial contributions to SIOP in many topics. Also, we are in the continental home of the Children’s Oncology Group and expect to be flooded with the latest breakthroughs from their comprehensive clinical trials portfolio. In addition, SIOP’s continental North American Branch shows an impressive growth and we welcome our North American colleagues to join and become more involved in the SIOP family. The congress will be home to many international comparative debates and discussions from which we can all take home new ideas and inspiration.
As always, we will include in our scientific program contents dealing with global pediatric oncology, especially those dealing with the WHO Global Initiative on Childhood Cancer where SIOP works actively in association with St Jude Global. The target is to double childhood cancer survival rates to at least 60% by 2030 for those living in resource-poor settings. Long term survival rates were last at this level in the late 1970s in high income countries. Through knowledge sharing and twinning partnerships to support care and research, it should be possible to accelerate improvement so that it does not take another 40 years to reach survival rates achievable with the current standard of care. The SIOP congress is the global venue for these discussions.
We look forward to seeing you at SIOP 2023 in Ottawa to hear and take part of all the latest advances!
Guillermo Luis Chantada, SIOP President
