Meeting grant support is requested for a scientific workshop entitled, """"""""Translating Cancer Prevention Research in Developing Countries"""""""". This workshop will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center in Bangalore, India, on February 13-17, 2011. The organizing committee for this workshop consists of Drs. Dean Brenner (USA), Madhuri Kakarala (USA), Kishore Chaudhry (India) and M. Abraham Kuriakose (India). The objectives of this conference are: 1: To identify overlapping mutually beneficial translational cancer prevention research questions that address cancer prevention and control priorities in India and the United States through: a. Comparing and contrasting cancer prevention research scientific strategies in various countries. b. Identifying the resources available and necessary infrastructure to support collaborative translational cancer prevention research among developing countries using India as an example and developed countries using the United States as an example. 2: To review and compare population based gene-environment interactions in Indian populations with those of other countries. 3: To review preventive strategies in organ site specific high incidence and mortality cancers common to India, Europe and the United States (airway, breast, cervix) that: a. Embrace and respect local culture and traditions and provide leads for cancer risk reduction strategies. b. Have potential to deploy to impoverished rural populations at low cost with minimal technological complexity. c. Will lead to cancer incidence and mortality reductions in developing and developed countries. Conferees are invited based upon their diversity in scientific discipline, interactive and collaborative experience and track-record, and perceived willingness to alter preconceptions in order to accommodate new information and reformulate future research plans. The Conference is intense and modeled after the Gordon Conferences. It requires conferees to remain segregated as a group for four days, working closely together. Meals and free time are structured to enhance the opportunities of conferees to interact informally. The Conference features panels consisting of 10 minute lectures, frequent discussion periods, multiple 60 minute panel discussions, lunch and dinner periods with focused group meetings, and an end of conference summary document from each of 7 panel discussions to create the need for closure and focus. The summary documents and speaker papers will be submitted for publication in Cancer Prevention and Cancer Biomarkers after appropriate peer review. By intensively interacting, conferees will become familiar with each other, will understand the strengths and weaknesses of the diverse disciplines represented at the meeting, and will recognize and establish cross disciplinary interactions to create necessary scientific critical masses to advance the field.
This workshop addresses cancer prevention on a global health scale. It addresses the key issues of translation of cancer prevention research to population and clinical application in a large, diverse developing country and its potential benefit world-wide. The workshop is designed to maximize the opportunities for collaboration, creating an environment in which scientists may exchange concepts and samples, thus permitting comparison of data from diverse genetic pools. Such infrastructure is crucial to the future development and deployment of cost effective, cancer early detection and screening technologies aimed at reducing mortality on a global scale, particularly in large population, cost constrained environments.
