Fellowship outcomes and impact

In the last 50 years UICC has awarded over 4000 fellowships to cancer professionals from over 140 different countries.

Women posing at the entrance of a conference

In 2020, even though the Technical Fellowships and Bourses pour l'Afrique Francophone programmes were closes for almost six months due to the global pandemic, 53 applications were received and 28 Fellows were awarded.

Click here for more information about the 2020 Fellows and their projects

To ensure the Fellowships programme continues to meet high standards, Fellows' experiences are monitored through surveys and case studies. In July 2020, 160 Fellows were surveyed a year or more after their fellowship visits. Of the 104 respondents:

Fellows would recommend going on a fellowship visit 

Fellows consider the fellowship led to an improvement in the quality of their organisation’s cancer care services

Fellows are still in contact with their host supervisor a year after their fellowship 

Fellows considered the fellowship contributed positively to their professional growth, with 87% given greater responsibilities or a promotion as a result

Fellows considered that the skills and knowledge gained during their fellowship had a positive impact (direct or indirect) on cancer patients

Fellows shared the skills and knowledge gained during their fellowship visit with ten or more colleagues

Spotlight on Fellowship topics

The follow articles showcase how our fellows have contributed to key cancer control priority areas through their fellowship projects. 

Spotlight on improving patient's quality of life

Three UICC fellows share how their fellowships helped them to improve the much needed support they provide to improve the quality of life of their patients. Read more

Spotlight on Cancer Prevention, Early Detection and Diagnosis

UICC fellowships have supported projects for prevention and early diagnosis of cancer since the 1950's from the development of vaccines to improving screening techniques. Read more

How UICC is building capacity in Francophone Africa

Doctor Alinon from Togo shares his personal experience of his UICC fellowship visit to Congo-Brazzaville with the aim of strengthening patient management and palliative care services in his country. Read more

Fellow publishes a study on stage distribution of breast cancer and cervical cancer  in the former Soviet Union in Lancet Oncology

Dr Anton Ryzhov works as a senior scientist at the National Cancer Institute and Registry of Ukraine. In 2018 he was awarded a Yamagiwa Yoshida Memorial International Study Grant to visit International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, France for a three month research project to analyze data on incidence and stage distributions of breast and cervical cancers in the Newly Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union, to compare with selected EU countries, and interpret the collected data in context of cancer control.

His findings were published online on 5 Feburary 2021, click here to access it. The results demonstrate modest progress in early detection of breast cancer in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. For cervical cancer, there is a need to tackle the high burden and unfavourable stage-specific changes over time in the region. A radical shift in national policies towards organised, population-based, quality-assured human papillomavirus vaccination and screening programmes is urgently needed.

Fellow publishes paper on a predictive biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) 

As a result of her fellowship visit to Ohio State University in 2018, Dr Wafaa Rashed, from the Children’s Cancer Hospital, Cairo, Egypt has published an article in Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology on using MET RNA expression as a biomarker for tivantinib and crizotinib targeted therapy in HCC.

Click here to read abstract

UICC Technical Fellows Benda Kithaka of Women4Cancer, Kenya and Eveline Tata Mayaah of Humanity at Heart International Association, Cameroon (right)

Operation 1000 women: lessons learned from Kenya

Eveline Tata Mayaah, co-founder and chairperson of Humanity at Heart International visited a UICC member organisation in Kenya, women4cancer Early Detection and Treatment, and descibes how she has applied new skills in cervical cancer prevention to her work in Cameroon.

Click here to read Eveline's blog

Fellow publishes on Colorectal cancer incidence and mortality in the Lancet

Dr Mingyang Song is an epidemiologist working on colorectal cancer at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, USA. In 2017, he was awarded a Yamagiwa Yoshida Memorial International Study Grant to visit Prof Jonas F Ludvigsson at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden for a collaborative three month project to investigate the long-term incidence and mortality rates of patients after colorectal polyp removal. Their results were published in the Lancet where they analysed data from national registries in Sweden of over 170,000 patients, and assessed colorectal cancer incidence and mortality in individuals diagnosed with different subtypes of colorectal polyps. They found that patients with a polyp had an increased colorectal cancer incidence and mortality and that the risk increase was greater for more advanced polyps. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1253(20)30009-1/fulltext

"This work would not be possible without the support of the UICC Yamagiwa-Yoshida International Memorial Study Grant. The Fellowship allowed me to visit Dr. Jonas Ludvigsson at Karolinska Institutet for data acquisition, analysis and reporting. That visit also built the pivotal basis for our continued collaboration."

Inspiring trip to Jordan leads to a new breast cancer programme in Cameroon

Ferdinant Mbiydzenyuy, programme manager and Florence Manjuh, nurse and supervisor from UICC member organisaton Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services visited the King Hussein Cancer Centre in Jordan to learn about breast cancer service delivery

Click here to read their blog

Fellowship from São Paulo to Toronto: sharing of skills in breast cancer clinical practice

Doctor Maysa Silveira from A.C Carmargo Cancer Centre, São Paulo, Brazil visited the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre  in Toronto, Canada as a UICC fellow to explore new practices for breast cancer patients.

Click here to read Maysa's blog

Fellow one of the "100 new faces of Kazakhstan"

Zarina Sautbayeva was selected as one of the “100 New Faces of Kazakhstan" project which lists the most outstanding people of Kazakhstan that the nation is proud of. 

In 2016 she visited Harvard Medical School in the US for a research fellowship focussing on the characterization of extracellular vesicles from glioblastoma. Currently, she holds the position of Biology Instructor at the School of Science and Technology of Nazarbayev University.

Watch the video below to find out more about her fellowship and current research activities.

Case studies about Fellows

Following completion of their fellowship, our fellows share their experience and learnings through case studies to promote best practices and collaboration within the cancer community.

Please click the link below to access recent case studies about UICC awarded Fellows and their fellowship visits.

We would love to hear about your experiences with UICC's fellowship programmes, whether you have been a Fellow or host supervisor. Download the guidelines and send your articles and case studies to fellows@uicc.org.

Fellow hosts and supervises another Fellow

Ms Sokhna Ndiaye is a pediatric psycho-oncologist working at UICC member organistion University Hospital Aristide Le Dantec, Senegal. In 2015 she visited Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer center in New York for a fellowship on "Addressing Pediatric Cancer and Palliative Care in Africa: The Urgent Need for Psychosocial Support Services". In 2017 she was host supervisor to Mr Eric Kabisa, from Rwanda Palliative care Organisation, Rwanda during his Bourse pour l'Afrique Francophone (BAF) fellowship in Senegal.

"I am a strong advocate for sharing practices. We don't all need to go through trial and error or reinvent the wheel. However, it is important to adapt the knowledge acquired to the realities of our low resources settings for our skills to be useful. I have personally very much benefited from my UICC fellowship in the US. So much so that I have encouraged and helped my colleague in Senegal apply for a UICC fellowship himself and it has been approved. Currently, I am supporting a colleague who lives in Cameroun to apply too. Two years after my return from my fellowship, I have hosted a fellowship candidate from Rwanda. That is what I call knowledge transfer; of which I am a strong advocate."
Sokhna Ndiaye
"This experience will facilitate the training of nursing staff and health care professionals in our setting regarding communicating with patients, and the holistic aspect of supportive care and ways of counselling."
Supriya Mondal, Fellow 2016 and Clinical Specialist Nurse.
"Being a UICC fellow is an outstanding opportunity to sharpen skills across different areas of cancer research and receive exceptional training to become a leader in the field of cancer control. It is also a valuable route to furthering career development, adding value to the work of one’s home institution and expanding professional networks."
Chris Wild, Director of IARC speaking at the 2016 WCLS
Christopher P. Wild, PhD, ICRETT Fellow 1984 and 1992 and former Director

2022 Technical and Virtual Fellowships calls opens

Woman wearing a mask speaking to another person holding a notepad.
Read more

Four cancer professionals receive YY Study Grants to further research

This year’s YY study grantees come from India, Brazil, and the US and be visiting renowned research institutions in the US, Japan and France.
Read more
Two doctors consult a document in the hallways of an hospital in Mexico

Established in 1962, the Fellowships is one of UICC's oldest and most established portfolio of programmes.

Asian woman on her laptop smiling and drinking coffee

Virtual Fellowships allow cancer professionals from UICC member organisations to obtain expert learning and guidance in cancer control in English, French or Spanish, through a series of four one-to-one video calls with experts.

three women taking a photo together

Transfer of cancer control knowledge, skills and techniques through one month international visits

Panel of 4 presenting a UICC report

En 2017 UICC a lancé un programme de bourses pour le personnel de santé et les autres professionnels travaillant dans le domaine du cancer en Afrique francophone.

Man at Istanbul University Oncology Institute looking at a computer

The YY Study Grants provide an important opportunity to advance cancer research through international collaboration. 

Two women discussing

Fellows who have successfully completed a fellowship are invited to join the Association of UICC Fellows.

UICC regularly reviews its capacity building programmes to ensure UICC programmes are not only contemporary but also targeted to meet the emerging needs of cancer control organisations and contribute to the development of cancer control at a country level.

Last update

Tuesday 21 February 2023

Share this page