Message from the President

Dear Friends,

I am honoured and humbled to assume as the President of both the Sri Lanka College of Oncologists (SLCO) and the SAARC Federation of Oncologists (SFO) this year.

The SLCO is a nationally and internally recognized professional body with more than 100 life members of clinical oncologists, surgical oncologists and gynaecological oncologists. The SLCO being a member of SFO (SAARC Federation of Oncologists) and FARO (Federation of Asian Organizations for Radiation Oncology), could exchange knowledge and expertise beyond the borders. I am happy to announce that we have been given an opportunity to lead the SAARC Federation of Oncologists this year. We need to host the annual SAARC Oncology Conference in Sri Lanka and also we have more obligations to manage the local and regional issues related to oncology field.

During the last few years, this unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic has prevented us to meet face to face in most of our activities. But we are now bit relaxed and out of Covid dangers. I presume that we can do many activities and have lively discussions face to face to meet the challenges ahead of us together.

The SLCO will continue to work with relevant stake holder in formulating the National Guidelines for the management of various cancers, improving the access to radiotherapy, ensuring the availability of essential drugs including opioids, registration & evaluation of new oncological drugs with emphasis on quality and safety in a transparent manner.

We also would like to arrange many CME/CPD programmes for oncologists and postgraduate trainees throughout this year. We will also invite experts locally, regionally and internationally for all educational activities including conducting short courses in radiotherapy.

We also expect our “Young Oncologists’ Forum” to engage in site specific study programmes to advance knowledge and skills to better manage cancers of specific sites in our region.

We are also planning to collaborate with various oncology groups internationally so that to engage in multinational research, clinical trials and knowledge/skill exchange.

I look forward to working with all medical professional bodies to engage in common issues and also to offer disease prevention as well as multi-disciplinary approach of quality medical care to all the citizens of this country.

Thank you

Dr.Nadarajah Jeyakumaran.

The President of the Sri Lanka College of Oncologists &
The President of the SAARC Federation of Oncologists.