7th Oncology Forum White Nights in Saint Petersburg: more than 11,500 live views

The 7^th International Oncology Forum White Nights 2021 was held virtually under the aegis of the Ministry of Health of Russia in Saint Petersburg from June 21-27, 2021. The Forum featured 608 on-line presentations, which were watched in 237 cities and 15 countries. The scientific sessions of the Forum attracted almost 9,000 live views, and the What should cancer patients know? session available on social media has had more than 2,500 views so far.

According to the World Health Organization, every 5^th man and every 6^th woman will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime globally. The fight against cancer is one of the most urgent items on the social agenda in many countries, including Russia. One of the main tasks facing Russian health care professionals is to make specialized cancer medical care more readily available and to improve its quality despite the current situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That is precisely why the 7^th Saint Petersburg International Oncology Forum White Nights 2021 paid special attention to sessions dedicated to public health organization, including the implementation of new procedures for the provision of specialized cancer medical care to adults and children and the adherence to clinical guidelines, which total more than 80 at the present moment. Some sessions of the Forum were centered on telemedicine, which allows physicians from remote and rural settings to consult specialists from national medical research centers when establishing the diagnosis and developing the treatment strategy.

The Forum offered sessions on new translational research done by Russian specialists in the field of cancer immunotherapy, as well as promising areas of research in cancer immuno-oncology. The Forum also featured a presentation on a novel technique of non-invasive treatment of breast cancer which was developed and is successfully used as part of a clinical trial by the specialists of the N.N. Petrov National Medical Research Center of Oncology. Live Surgery broadcasts from operating rooms in Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Krasnodar sparked great interest among the participants.

A special session was held to discuss effective nursing management, arrangement of work of nurses and expansion of their role in all aspects of daily cancer patient care.

Presentations given by international professionals also generated great interest. The Forum featured sessions by the European School of Oncology, the Korea Health Industry Development Institute and the Korea International Medical Association.

For the first time, the Forum offered a session titled ‘Difficult aspects of patient-doctor relationship’, which covered not only the proper way of building trustful and respectful relationship between the doctor, the nursing staff and the patient, but also the emotional burn-out of medical professionals and the ways to cope with it.

The What Should Cancer Patients Know? session significantly grew this year and saw active participation of representatives of non-governmental organizations from all over the country who talked about their patient-oriented programs. The recorded session is available on VKontakte and YouTube.

The Forum’s organizer – the Association of Oncologists of the Northwestern Federal District – and its scientific partner the N.N. Petrov National Medical Research Center of Oncology would like to thank the participants of the Forum and look forward to seeing you at the next event in 2022.