SIOP 2022 will be held from 28 September to 1 October with more than 3,300 professionals
The CCIB hosts the world’s most important congress on childhood cancer
The world’s largest conference on childhood cancer launched this morning in Barcelona. The Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB), managed by Fira de Barcelona, is hosting the 54th Annual Congress of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) until Saturday, bringing together more than 3,300 specialists from 135 countries to debate, share knowledge and advance cancer treatment for children, adolescents and young adults. The Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, which has recently opened the SJD Paediatric Cancer Centre Barcelona, participates in its organisation.
After its last face-to-face edition in Lyon in 2019, and two years in online format due to the pandemic, SIOP 2022 comes to the CCIB from 28 September to 1 October with its first hybrid congress (face-to-face and online) that will increase participation in the congress and the dissemination of research throughout the global cancer community, especially in developing countries.
With the vision “No child should die from cancer: cure for more, care for all”, SIOP is expecting a record number of attendees this year with more than 3,300 professionals, including doctors, nurses and other health professionals, scientists and researchers. Over four days, the event will feature an extensive programme with more than 162 scientific sessions and the presence of 135 international speakers.
The president of the local organising committee of SIOP and scientific director of the SJD Paediatric Cancer Centre Barcelona, Jaume Mora, explains that “together with the attractiveness of Barcelona, we have international prestige and recognition with local research groups and pioneering centres such as the Sant Joan Déu Hospital that has contributed to the arrival of SIOP in Barcelona”.
Mora adds that “it is a very important moment because the WHO has put childhood cancer on the agenda as one of the objectives to achieve a significant improvement in survival by 2030, which in developed countries reaches 85%, but in contrast, in the rest of the world where most children live, the average does not reach 30%. In this regard, the WHO aims to reach 60% and this can be achieved at least for the six most easily curable tumours, such as Wilms’ tumour, kidney tumour, Burkitt’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, low-grade glioma and retinoblastoma”.
For his part, the CCIB’s general manager, Marc Rodríguez, says that “it is a privilege to host SIOP at our venue, but the most important thing for medical congresses is to have a healthcare cluster like the one we have in Barcelona and Catalonia, which are a great hub of knowledge and innovation. At the CCIB, very important people pass through our lives presenting the innovations that we will all use one day, in the medical field and also in many other sectors, such as technology and pharmaceuticals”.
SIOP, with more than 2,600 members worldwide, is the only global multidisciplinary society devoted entirely to paediatric and adolescent cancer. In addition to Mora, the SIOP Board of Directors also includes another leading professional from the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, Guillermo Chantada, president-elect of SIOP and head of the outreach programme at the SJD Paediatric Cancer Centre Barcelona.
The Congress coincides with the inauguration on 16 June of the SJD Paediatric Cancer Centre Barcelona, the first monographic centre for paediatric oncology in Spain and the second in Europe. The new centre consolidates the model of research, assistance and care for childhood cancer promoted by the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital for more than 15 years and will increase its capacity to treat new cases by 35% each year.
The SIOP 2022 Congress is one of the 20 medical and scientific events that the CCIB will host this year, including other international congresses such as the Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and Cancer Treatments (ENA) or the European Breast Cancer (EBCC), Paediatric Societies (EAPS) or Nuclear Medicine (EANM) that will take place in October and December.
Barcelona, 28 September 2022
CCIB Communication
David Jiménez
93 230 10 00 – 674 033 249 / djimenez@ccib.es
Sant Joan de Déu Hospital Press
Albert Moltó/Lourdes Campuzano
93 253 21 50 – 605 69 52 77 / 665 50 02 14
amolto@sjdhospitalbarcelona.org lcampuzano@sjdhospitalbarcelona.org