International Asian Conference on Cancer Screening (IACCS)

The first IACCS meeting was held at Keelung, the northernmost city of Taiwan in 2004. The meeting was convened by director of Health Bureau of Keelung, Dr. Wang, Po-En and also co-convened by President of IACCS, Professor Tony Hsiu-Hsi Chen. Our current Dean of College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Professor Chan, Chang-Chuan, also made great contribution to 1^st IACCS meeting.

The venue for the meeting shown in the pictures is the Keelung congressional hall. The delegates attending 1^st IACCS included Prof. Rengaswamy representing India and also a delegate from WHO, Prof. Robert A. Smith from USA, Prof. Stephen W. Duffy from UK, Prof. Won-Chul Lee from Korea, Prof. Supannee Promthet from Thailand, Prof. Hiroshi Saito from Japan, Prof. Khay-Guan Yeoh from Singapore. These members are our pillars of IACCS who play crucial role in subsequent IACCS curriculum.

Due to initial preparation of IACCS for other countries, the second meeting of IACCS was still hosted in Taiwan, in parallel with the most important activity of mammography screening workshop sponsored by Prof. Tabar Laszlo. The meeting took place at the venue of “Scientific Museum”. The delegates were expanded to include Dr. Lin Yang from China and Prof. Rosnah Zain from Malaysia.

In 2006, we had 3^rd IACCS meeting in Singapore convened by Dr. Khay-Guan Yeoh and also by Deputy of Ministry of Health, Christine Fock. At the same time, we initiated pre-conference for educational program related to theory, implementation, and evaluation of community-based cancer screening offered for our alliance of Asian members.

Between 2004 and 2006, Keelung community-based integrated screening model (KCIS) has been diffused to southern Taiwan, we decided to have 4^th IACCS meeting at Tainan, one of southern cities of Taiwan in order to celebrate another successful working model on community-based integrated screening. We also invited Professor Malcolm Anthony Moore from UK and Professor Ahti Anttila from Finland.

Inspired by Professor Matti Hakama and Professor Anssi Auvinen from Finland, and Professor Supannee Promthet, our main senior member of IACCS, took over 5^th IACCS meeting and 3^rd pre-conference workshop on educational program in Khon Kaen University, Thailand. Professor Patravoot Vatanasapt was also the key person to facilitate this meeting and we had good time in several good night parties under the arrangement of Professor Supannee Promthet. Professor Alimin Maidin on behalf of Indonesia began joining with IACCS on this occasion.

We moved to Korea to hold 6th IACCS meeting and 4th pre-conference of workshop chaired by Prof. Won-Chul Lee, another senior member of IACCS. In this meeting, community-based integrated screening has been extensively exchanged and discussed. We have also enjoyed classical drama of Korea entertained by Professor Lee and his colleagues. The most interesting curriculum is that our 4th Pre-conference on evaluation of cancer screening was held in anatomy laboratory museum in Catholic University, Korea as seen in the following picture.

To place emphasis on prevention of oral cancer that is our unique intervention program in Asian country particularly with the habit of betel quids chewing, Dr. Sam Li-Sheng Chen, Dr. Amy Ming-Fang Yen, and Dr. Huey-Hui Tsai, Director of School of Oral Hygiene, took over the 7^th IACCS with the subject focusing on oral cancer screening. We have invited the leader community, Dr. Yen-Po Ye, Director of Changhua Health Bureau, and Deputy of Ministry of Health and Welfare, Dr. Ming-Neng Hsu to join with this important meeting on how to conduct a population-based oral cancer screening.

Motivated by Professor Alimin Maidin when he participated in the 5^th IACCS in Kohn Kaen University, Thailand, we planned the 8^th IACCS held in the famous Bali island and the 5^th Pre-conference held in Makassar city, Indonesia. Three important guests were invited at this meeting, Professor Wang, Xi-Mau from Tianjin, China, Dr. Lawerence Larry from WHO, and Professor Fraser Callum from Scotland, and Professor Chang, King-Jen, a very famous expert on breast cancer screening from Taiwan. In addition to very fruitful academic meeting there, we had good time enjoying this beautiful and cultural Bali Island.

During the period from 2011-2013, our IACCS members have been invited by APOCP mainly from Professor Malcolm to join with their meeting. In 2014, as their assembly meeting was held in Taiwan, we had a very successful joint meeting with AOPCP with one session specific to population-based screening for cancer with emphasis on colorectal cancer screening and also gastric cancer screening. More importantly, we have invited Dr. Lorna to give a wonderful speech on prostate cancer screening from European viewpoint. Since then, our IACCS has been affiliated with AOPCP to support with each other on the subject of screening.