Attending the SSO Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida (March 27–29, 2025) was an inspiring experience. Over 1,000 surgical oncologists from more than 40 countries gathered under the theme “Discovery.” As a new resident-member, I presented a poster on Esophageal Cancer in Malawi—a cohort study from Malamulo Adventist and Queen Elizabeth Central Hospitals.
Several key themes stood out:
- Robotics vs. Laparoscopy: A robotic pancreas surgeon noted, “Laparoscopy is 1980s technology.” While robotics offers exciting potential, the reality in low-resource settings like ours is that even laparoscopy remains underutilized. The challenge remains access and affordability.
- Precision Oncology: A Widening Gap Sessions highlighted the rise of biomarker-driven treatment. Yet, routine biomarker testing is still inaccessible in most African contexts, signaling a growing disparity and urgent need for diagnostic infrastructure.
- Training African Surgical Oncologists: I raised concerns about limited fellowship pathways under COSECSA/WACS. Encouragingly, I learned of emerging collaborations with institutions like Loma Linda University aimed at developing Africa-specific solutions.
- Local Innovation, Not Imitation: Dr. Kapoor’s talk on context-driven breast cancer care echoed my own workflow in Malawi—performing bedside ultrasounds and localizations. Practices I once viewed as temporary are, in fact, efficient and sustainable solutions being adopted globally.
This meeting affirmed the relevance of African voices in global oncology. I return motivated to apply these insights in building more equitable, locally-driven cancer care systems.
Joseph Mkandawire, MD
General Surgery Resident
Malamulo Adventist Hospital
