IGCS welcomes 51 Belarusian gynecologic oncology team members from the Belarusian Oncology Society as a Strategic Alliance Partners:
A message from Mary Eiken, RN, MS, IGCS CEO
In June, I communicated the Council’s long-term and short-term goals for membership expansion and our hopes to increase engagement through our new Strategic Alliance Partner Program. The goal of the program is to encourage organizations and regions from all over the globe whose objectives are consistent and aligned with our own become partners, allowing their local members to become IGCS members as a unified group.
I am so pleased to welcome our first Strategic Alliance Partner, the Belarus Gynecologic Oncology Division of the Belarusian Society of Oncology! Fifty-one gynecologic oncology, surgeons, specialists, researchers, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists from cities across the eastern European country of Belarus are now Alliance Members of the IGCS.
Belarus is a country of 9.5 million people in eastern Europe, on the western border of Russia and the northern border of Ukraine. There are sixty gynecological oncologists in Belarus working at N.N. Alexandrov Cancer Center, at six Regional and six Inter-district Cancer Dispensaries.
In Belarus, the overwhelming majority of cancer patients undergo examination and treatment at the N.N. Alexandrov Cancer Center and Cancer Dispensaries, which facilitates information collection. About 4,000 new cases of gynecologic cancer are diagnosed annually in Belarus. In 2015, 2,028 endometrial cancer cases, 964 ovarian cancer cases and 884 cervical cancer cases were newly diagnosed. In 2015, the incidence and mortality in endometrial cancer were 22.9 and 3.6 on 100,000 female population respectively (World standard), in ovarian cancer – 12.1 and 4.6, in cervical cancer – 11.9 and 4.2.
We are now working to deliver benefits to the fifty-one new Belarusian Alliance Members by providing access to our online education portal, a web page specific to the Belarus group, a network to allow an exchange of ideas and communicating the benefits of membership to the Belarus clinicians. Dr. Michael Quinn, current IGCS President has expressed that “we look forward to a meeting with the Belarusian leaders to further discuss their needs and discover the areas in which we can work together to meet our common goals to enhance the care of women with gynecologic cancer worldwide. This alliance is a meaningful step in the right direction for the IGCS and we hope to partner with more groups in the near future.”
Dr. Sergey Mavrichev, Head of the Gynecologic Oncology Department at N.N. Alexandrov National Cancer Centre in Belarus who was instrumental in solidifying the partnership says that “participating in the IGCS Strategic Alliance Partnership Program is an excellent opportunity for surgeons and gynecologic oncology team members in Belarus to obtain access to the specialized education materials that IGCS can provide. By collaborating with the IGCS, we now have a voice to participate in key strategic discussions with global leaders in the field and industry who are focused on finding solutions to the same issues with which we are concerned.”
We look forward to our partnership with Belarus and we hope to announce more partners in the coming months on the IGCS.org homepage. If you are interested in becoming a Strategic Alliance Partner please contact me at mary.eiken@igcs.org. I welcome the opportunity to continue this meaningful conversation.
Membership expansion will assist and guide the next several years of IGCS growth and development allowing for closer dialogue, better idea and information sharing, and collaboration with the common goal of finding solutions to the many issues that face us globally.
Sincerely yours,
Mary Eiken, RN, MS
IGCS CEO