Exactly one month later, in the second half of May, the 15th Asian Congress of the International Society for Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) will be held at Yerevan State Medical University after Mkhitar Heratsi. See the next group of speakers for the upcoming event:
R.R. (Ronald) de Krijger MD, PhD
Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology
Position: Pathologist at Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, Netherlands
Dr. Krijger is a pathologist and staff member at the Princess Maxima Center and the University Medical Center Utrecht. He received his specialization in pediatric pathology from St. Michael's Hospital in Bristol, UK and PhD in the Department of Pediatrics from Erasmus University Rotterdam.
From 2012 to 2018, he was a staff member at the Department of Pathology at Reinier de Graaf Gasthuis in Delft. Among his scientific interests are pediatric solid tumors, such as neuroblastomas, kidney tumors, liver tumors, germ-cell tumors, and endocrine tumors. He served as (co-) project leader for 15 and more national and international research projects, including 4 European projects (such as FP7 and H2020).
Nisreen Amayiri, MD
Topic: Establishing a Pediatric neuro-oncology service in a LMIC
King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC), Jordan
Position: Pediatric Neuro-oncologist
Dr. Nisreen Amayiri is the recipient of the ASCO 2016 Life Award from the Conquer Cancer Foundation which enabled her to pursue her pediatric Neuro-Oncology fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children (Sickkids)/Toronto in 2016/2017.
Dr. Amayiri’s main clinical interest is to improve the survival and importantly the quality of life of children diagnosed with CNS tumors in resource-limited countries.
Currently, Dr. Amayiri is leading the HeadSmart Jordan national awareness project.
Prof. Simon Bailey, MD, PhD
Topic: Medulloblastoma – the evolution of risk stratified treatment
Great North Children's Hospital and University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Position: Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatric Oncology, Great North Children's Hospital and University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Prof. Simon Bailey is a consultant pediatric neuro-oncologist and the chair of the Department of pediatric oncology at Great North Children's Hospital. His research interests include the use of molecular testing to stratify treatment of children with brain tumors and delivery of risk adapted protocols to resource limited countries.
Currently, he is the European lead for the SIOPE high risk medulloblastoma trial, chair of the National Cancer Research Institute Paediatric Brain Tumor group and chair of the SIOPE Paediatric Embryonal Brain Tumor group.
Lieve Tytgat, MD, PhD
Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, Netherlands
Position: Pediatric Oncologist, associate professor and research group leader at the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology
Driven to understand and solve clinical problems, Dr. Tytgat has combined research with all stages of her training. She bridges the gap between basic science and clinical practice as she is actively engaged in translational research, focusing on liquid biopsies, the interaction between tumor cells with their microenvironment and how this is reflected in nuclear imaging. She is the founder of the national pediatric-tumor liquid biopsy consortium and international chair of the neuroblastoma liquid biopsy committee.
Dr. Tytgat has currently various ongoing projects on liquid biopsies, the micro-environment, and nuclear imaging in pediatric solid tumors and currently mentors 12 PhD students.
Khaled Ghanem, MD
Topic: Childhood cancer care during conflict and crisis
BASMA Pediatric Oncology Unit, Al Bairouni Hospital, Syria
Position: Medical director
Dr. Khaled Ghanem is a consultant pediatric oncologist and the medical director of BASMA Pediatric Oncology Unit in Damascus, Syria. His main area of interest is childhood cancer care in areas of conflict and crisis. He has been intensively involved in capacity building for childhood cancer care in his country since the end of the Syrian war in 2018. As a result of his contributions, there has been a major improvement in levels of care and patient outcomes over the past 5 years.
Dr. Ghanem is also a regional pediatric oncology leader and has received multiple international awards from ASH and EBMT. Recently, he was selected for the first SIOP Young Rising Star Award during SIOP 2022 in Barcelona.
Anna Gorchakova
Belarusian Children’s Hospice
Position: Director of Public Charity Organization “Belarusian children’s hospice”, director of Palliative Medicine courses in the Belarusian Postgraduate Medical Academy
Anna Gorchakova is the initiator of palliative care in the Republic of Belarus and the founder of the first hospice in Belarus for children. She started her career as a clinical psychologist at the Belarusian Republican Oncology and Hematology Centre in 1990 and worked there for four years. In 1994, she underwent her first foreign training in Washington with Children's Hospice International. The experience she gained in USA motivated her to establish the Hospice in Belarus. Since then, Anna Gorchakova has been the director of the Belarusian Children's Hospice.
Her persistence and desire to organize a service of care for terminally ill Belarusian children led to the foundation of children's hospices in four out of six regional centers of the Republic of Belarus.
Anna Gorchakova has ten years of experience in coordinating palliative services for children in the Republic of Belarus. She is also the Head of Palliative Courses in the Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education.
In 2000, the Belarusian Ministry of Health awarded Anna Gorchakova with an Honorary Diploma for developing palliative services in the Republic. In 2003, Anna Gorchakova was granted the Cross of the Most Sacred Order of the Orthodox Hospitallers for the development of care for dying children in the Republic of Belarus for many years. The same year, Children's Hospice International honored Anna with the Earl A. Grolman Award for Bereavement.
Prof. Dr. Norbert Graf
Topic: State of the art in diagnosis and treatment of Wilms tumor
University Hospital Saarland, Germany
Professor of Pediatrics at Saarland University, Principal investigator of the UMBRELLA protocol
Norbert Graf is a Professor of Pediatrics at Saarland University. He was the director of the Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology at the University Hospital Saarland until March 2022 and the Dean of study affairs at Saarland University until April 2022. He is the former chairman of the Renal Tumor Study Group of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP), and the principal investigator of the current the UMBRELLA protocol for the management of children with renal tumors.
Prof. Graf is an international member of the Children’s Oncology Group in North America and among directors of the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) Institute. Professor Graf has more than 35 years of experience in running clinical trials. His research interests include pediatric renal tumors and modeling their response to treatment using deep learning and AI technologies.
Norbert Graf is the author and co-author of more than 400 scientific publications.