Cancer Survivorship Delegate Programme 2017

Conference
Presidents Address
On behalf of myself and the team at
Blackpool Victoria hospital I would
like to welcome you to this year’s
international head & neck cancer
conference here in Blackpool.
It is a privilege to serve as President of this inspirational conference. The incidence of head
and neck cancer in England is the highest in the North west. Our patients tend to present
quite late to us with advanced disease and this can be associated with poorer outcomes
when compared to cancer results in other parts of the country. It is befitting then that this
conference is being held at Blackpool.
Patients support, and awareness is becoming an important part of the ‘Pathway/Journey’ and
can help patients from diagnoses through to survivorship in understand and coming to terms
with cancer. Here in Blackpool we are proud to have the Swallows Charity who support our
patients and over the last six years this charity has grown to international status and supports
patients as far as the USA. The charity not only provides patient support and information but
also has been instrumental in donating equipment to our hospital. This was recognised in the
recent MBE award presented to Swallows earlier this year.
All health professionals and patients should understand the issues around living with
and beyond cancer and the best people to educate us all is our patients/survivors, so the
next two days will go a long way to educate us all. There have been recent advances in
the management of head & neck cancer. I look forward to learning about new techniques
in surgery and radiotherapy with reduced morbidity which can enhance the range of
treatment options available to us. There will also be an opportunity to hear about aspects of
management of cancer in Australia and the USA so that we can benefit from their experience.
I am very grateful to all our speakers, some of whom have travelled a long distance to be with
us, for their time and effort in sharing their experience of head & neck cancer with us over the
next two days.
This should be an exciting conference which I am sure we will all enjoy.
r
er
Mr Ajay Nigam FRCSEd FRCSEng FRCSORL
Consultant ENT and Head & Neck Surgeon
& Conference President 2017
#HNCCONF2017
yourcancerjourney.org.uk/conference
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