Cancer Screening and Monitoring Meeting for OIC Member States was held in Ankara. 60 local and foreign participants from 25 countries attended the meeting. Prof. Dr. Eyüp Gümüş, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Prof. Dr. Murat Tuncer, Rector of Hacettepe University, Prof. Dr. Tezer Kutluk, Head of the World Cancer Organization, Prof. Dr. İrfan Şencan, Head of the Turkish Public Agency Institution and Dr. Öner Güner, General Director for EU and Foreign Affairs took part in this meeting.
Having underlined the objective of the meeting, Gümüş stated that “Through this meeting, we primarily aim to evaluate the cancer-related procedures and applications in Turkey - concerning screening, treatment and monitoring of the patients. We will share our knowledge with the Islamic countries. We will also evaluate their problems. The objective is to share the knowledge in the field of cancer”.
‘We come across 176 thousand new cancer cases per year’
Gümüş attracted attention to the importance of the cancer and put forth that “We come across 176 thousand new cancer cases per year. The incidence of lung cancer is high in men and that of breast cancer is high in women. As a result, we will be successful if we increase the early screening ad diagnosis programs for the cancer patients, if we protect more citizens and if we treat them more effectively. We apply the screening programs strictly. Our cancer-related studies will continue. To this aim, we founded Cancer Institute of Turkey.”
Gümüş, having stated that they target to update the personalized treatments by penetrating into the undiscovered fields of cancer through clinical studies, said that “In many fields, genetic mutations may cause cancer development. For instance, 140 genetic deformations are currently known for breast cancer; it may be even 210. There is a gap in this field and the relevant studies will continue. We will assess our own tissues, based on a cooperation protocol, to understand exactly the cancer development peculiar to Turkey. In consequence, we will obtain two outcomes: firstly, we will pave the way for development of target-oriented medicines when we find out genetic deformation. Secondly, we will provide important information for clinicians. When clinicians submit the cancer tissues, they ask for outcomes. In other words, the relevant information comes to the fore in the cellular studies to evaluate the risk of the patients. In this regard, the Ministry of Health will coordinate the more detailed information.”
Gümüş said that Aziz Sancar, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, would attend the Medicine Council on 29 October and that these issues would be dealt with during the Council in more detail.