Cancer control in low and middle income countries: New solutions to evolving challenges

HRH Princess Dina Mired is a well-known passionate global advocate for cancer control and non-communicable diseases and mother of a cancer survivor.

HRH Princess Dina was elected as president of UICC In November 2018. Testament to her outstanding leadership, she was the first Arab to have been elected in such a prestigious global post.

On September of 2011 Princess Dina delivered the keynote speech on behalf of all civil society on the opening of the United Nations General Assembly first ever high-level meeting on non-communicable disease’s (NCDs). On September of 2018 Princess Dina was chosen again to speak at the third high level meeting on NCDs as “eminent champion of the fight against non-communicable diseases”.

As director general of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation (KHCF) in Jordan 2002 - 2016, Princess Dina established and led KHCF in Jordan for fifteen years transforming the non-profit into the most successful fundraiser for cancer control efforts in Jordan and an internationally known brand.

Princess Dina was the honorary chairperson of the Jordan Breast Cancer Program as founder from 2006 to 2016. Princess Dina is also a well-known fierce global advocate in the fight against tobacco.

Princess Dina serves in many high-profile international positions such as being an honorary ambassador of Harvard Global Health Win – Win Initiative and is recipient of many awards including the prestigious “International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Medal of Honour, “Personality of the year 2016 in the fight against breast cancer”, Female of the year 2017- Golden Award for Excellence” by the Arab Women Council. Arab Woman Award 2018 for “Achievements in Global Leadership in Cancer Control”.

Professor Richard Sullivan is professor of cancer and global health at King’s College London, and director of the King’s Institute of Cancer Policy and co-director of the Conflict and Health Research Group. As well as holding a number of visiting chairs, Professor Richard Sullivan is an non-communicable disease (NCD) advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO), civil-military advisor to Save the Children, and a member of the National Cancer Grid of India.

His research focuses on global cancer policy and planning, and health systems strengthening, particularly fragile and conflict settings. Professor Richard Sullivan’s research teams have programs in capacity building in conflict and health across the Middle East and North Africa (r4hc-mena.org), as well as programmes in women’s health, digital innovation (VR enhanced surgery) and a wide range of global health security projects. Professor Sullivan qualified in medicine and trained in surgery (urology), gaining his PhD in biochemistry from University College London. As well as working as research and development lead in industry he was also clinical director of Cancer Research UK, one of the world’s largest research funders between 1999 and 2008.

Dr Ophira Ginsburg is a medical oncologist and global women’s health researcher with technical and policy expertise in noncommunicable diseases prevention and management.  She is the director of the high-risk cancer genetics program and associate professor in the section for global health, department of population health at New York University School of Medicine. Formerly based at the University of Toronto, from 2015 to 2016 she was a medical officer at WHO and continues to serve as a consultant to several UN agencies, providing technical assistance to member states on national cancer control planning and policies.

Over the last 15 years, Dr Ophira Ginsburg developed an inter-disciplinary collaborative program of research, education, and policy guidance in cancer control, with colleagues on five continents. The overarching aim of her work is to improve equitable access to early detection for breast and cervical cancer in low-income and middle-income countries. She also conducts public health research to reduce cancer disparities for women in underserved communities in North America, and is leading a new study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (“Cancer Moonshot” program), to improve access to cancer genetics services through primary care clinics in the New York area.

Dr Gilberto Lopes is an expert in medical oncology in low- and middle-income countries, is medical director for International programs and associate director for global oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and associate professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is also an associate editor for ASCO University and for ASCO’s Journal of Global Oncology. From 2006 to 2013, Dr Lopes worked for the Johns Hopkins University Singapore International Medical Center, and, prior to that, was the chief medical and scientific officer for the Oncoclinicas Group, the largest oncology provider in Latin America with 35 clinics and more than 300 oncologists in nine states in Brazil.

Dr Lopes has published widely, with more than 100 papers in journals such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer, The Lancet, The Lancet Oncology, and Nature Reviews, and has lectured nationally and internationally. He has been principal or co-principal investigator or steering committee member in more than 100 studies and clinical trials covering breast, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and thoracic cancers. His areas of research interest extend to health economics, value, policy, and access to cancer drugs and treatment in low- and middle-income countries. He has served as an expert for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health Organization and the Pan-American Health Organization.

After graduating from medical school in Brazil, Dr Lopes received residency training in internal medicine and completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology at the University of Miami.