Exceptional keynote speakers

Each Congress day will start with a plenary lecture that will gather all Congress participants in the auditorium to hear keynote addresses from world-class speakers. Find out who they are.

This select-group of highly influential and prominent experts will cover advances in, and fresh perspectives on, prevention and screening, diagnosis and treatment, care and survivorship and innovative cancer control systems. They will discuss progress and share insights into future directions, as well as draw on their own experiences.

Each keynote will end with a “Questions and Answers” period, enabling participants to take the discussion further.

WORLD-CLASS speakers

Click on their names to discover their bios and the topics they will cover at the Congress

2014 World Cancer Congress Opening Ceremony

Professor Ian Frazer AC, FRS, FAA
CEO and Director of Research
Translational Research Institute Pty Ltd

Professor Ian Frazer, a Scottish-born Australian Scientist developed and patented the basic technology behind the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer; the second cancer-preventing vaccine, and the first vaccine designed to prevent a cancer.

Giving what will no doubt be an inspirational keynote speech at the official opening of the 2014 World Cancer Congress, Professor Frazer’s address will focus on strategies to accelerate progress in cancer, which will call delegates to action and motivate them to innovate and affect positive change. He will draw on his experience with the development of the HPV vaccine, using this as an example of finding solutions to problems that are barriers to progress.

PLENARY DAY 1 - SUSTAINABLE HEALTH SYSTEMS

Shared with 41st COSA Annual Scientific Meeting

Throughout the world governments are challenged to meet the health care needs of their populations. The rising incidence of cancer has been identified by the World Bank as a significant economic threat. In this session, some of the big picture issues facing the delivery of sustainable cancer services - overdiagnosis and overtreatment will be addressed.

Professor Peter C. Doherty; PhD
Member, St. Jude Faculty
Michael F. Tamer Chair of Biomedical Research
1996 Nobel Prize of Medicine

Topic: Sustainable discoveries

Professor Peter C. Doherty will be linking his experience and insights on immunology, infections and cancer discovery to sustainable health systems, focusing on the concept of sustainable discovery. Also, he will draw on the threads from his Nobel Prize winning research on the role of the immune system in protection against viruses to the growing relevance of immunology in cancer therapeutics.

Professor Irene Higginson

Director of the Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London
National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator (UK)
2013 Fellowship Award of the Academy of Medical Sciences

Topic: Sustainable models of palliative care in cancer: is integration the answer?

In her presentation, Professor Higginson will consider the levels of evidence for the different models of palliative care and suggest a possible way forward to achieve sustainability.

IMAGE TO COME

Laura Levit
Associate Director, Research Policy at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

Study Director at the Institute of Medicine for the report High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis (USA)

Topic: Institute of Medicine Recommendations for Addressing the Cancer Care Crisis in the United States

In the recently published Institute of Medicine Report on delivering high-quality cancer care, it states that “The cancer care delivery systems is in crisis...cost of cancer also is rising faster than many sectors of medicine.” Based onASCO’s efforts to implement the report’s recommendations, Laura Levit will focus her presentation on the conceptual framework and recommended strategies for narrowing disparities in patient’s access to high-quality cancer care. The argument that a sustainable system can be equitable and high quality will also be presented.

PLENARY Day 2 - National and international approaches

Efforts to integrate cancer control and address equity.

Mr Stephen Lewis

Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson University
Former UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa

Keynote address supported by

Topic: International initiatives in global health challenges: First HIV, then cancer/NCD’s

We sit on the threshold of the next set of Millennium Development Goals. The greatest challenge for those goals lies in the field of global health. How do we move from infectious diseases to non-communicable diseases without prejudicing the former and finally bringing justice to the latter? How do we increase the funding so that NCDs are not reduced to fighting for a slice of the existing financial pie? Do we need a new international convention on global public health in order to guarantee fair treatment for cancer and other NCDs?

Honourable Nicola Roxon

Former Australian Attorney-General
Former Australian Minister of Health - introducing the world’s first plain packaging regime in the world

Topic: Nicola Roxon will be speaking on her experiences in reforming the hospital, primary care and preventative health care systems. Ms Roxon will discuss the challenges encountered, and her role in, building the case for tobacco control including securing plain packaging for tobacco products and advocating for action on alcohol and obesity

PLENARY Day 3 - using data to drive decisions

Atul Butte
Chief of Division of Systems Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital
Researcher in biomedical informatics and biotechnology entrepreneur in Silicon Valley (United States)
Founder of biotechnology companies: Personalis, Carmenta and NuMedii
2013 Open Science Champion of Change for promoting science through publicly available data, White House recognition (United States)

Click here to watch Atul Butte's presentation at TEDMED 2012

Topic: Opportunities for creatively mining the vast amounts of data steadily accumulating in biomedical databases

Keynote speaker to be announced soon

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Last update

Friday 07 June 2019