Help Ukraine Group organized a successful session on Ukraine at ASTRO annual meeting 2023. Many thanks to ASTRO for hosting the session and providing free registration for 7 Ukrainian radiation oncologists and medical physicists! Loads of gratitude to the speakers: Ruslan Zelinskyi, Andriy Hanych, Zoia Shepil, Roman Kizyma, Yulia Lozko, Serhii Brovchuk, Nataliya Kovalchuk. Dr. Hanych, the head of Mariupol Onco Dispensary delivered his speech from the war front with the artillery firing in the background. Please see Dr. Hanych’s speech here.
The session received the standing ovation at the end. This ovation is dedicated to the brave Ukrainian onco practitioners who despite the unimaginable devastation of war continue to treat their cancer patients, to the doctors-heroes caring and evacuating their patients to save them from the missile hit, to the medical physicists volunteering to provide the best automation tools to streamline the radiotherapy workflow, to pediatric oncologists evacuating pediatric patients for cancer treatments abroad, and to the next generation of oncology professionals who despite the challenges continue studying to build the future of oncology in Ukraine.
We thank Nova Ukraine, Peace and Development Foundation, Stanford Radiation Oncology, Global Medical Knowledge Alliance and UICC grants for supporting the travel for the Ukrainian delegation! Special thanks to Oksana Markarova and Michael Simbirsky. Slava Ukraini!