Building geriatric oncology collaborations in North America: a visit to Princess Margaret Cancer Centre

Dr Enrique Soto Pérez de Celis, former UICC Young Leader, obtained a Technical Fellowship to visit Dr Shabbir Alibhai at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Older Adults with Cancer Clinic (OACC) and build clinical and research collaborations across North American cancer institutions.

The UICC Technical Fellowship programme aims at facilitating international exchange of knowledge and skills in all areas of cancer control to build capacity and create global networks of professionals across all regions of the world, professions, and career stages.

In low- and middle-income countries there are limited opportunities for undertaking observerships abroad to learn new skills, and thus the technical fellowship represents an excellent option to obtain knowledge that can be used to advance careers and to improve the care of individuals living with cancer.

At our institution, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán (INCMNSZ) in Mexico City, we have successfully worked to obtain technical fellowships for trainees across various disciplines and career paths. So far, six technical fellowships have been granted to early career physicians at INCMNSZ, mostly for research and capacity building in the field of geriatric oncology.

I had the honour of being awarded a technical fellowship to go to Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada, to work with Dr Shabbir Alibhai on the analyses of a collaborative study of mobile technology to monitor older patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy. The purpose of my fellowship was to improve my skills in the design and analysis of mobile health studies for older adults with cancer.

My host supervisor, Dr Shabbir Alibhai, leads a study using mobile tools for the monitoring of older patients with prostate cancer in Canada. During my fellowship I worked on analysing the data generated in my study in Mexico. In addition, the fellowship helped me obtain novel perspectives about how to lead a successful geriatric oncology clinic like the one I have at my Institution, and about how to train fellows in geriatric oncology.

All the objectives planned for the technical fellowship were successfully completed. I was able to undertake clinical work and to understand the working not only of the geriatric oncology clinic but also of other clinical services that are essential for older adults, such as prehabilitation and survivorship.

I was able to understand the way in which the geriatric oncology fellowship is designed and to get direct insights from Fellows, which will be extremely useful for further development of the geriatric oncology fellowship we have started at my institution.

I was also able to work in the analysis of the results of a study conducted in collaboration with Dr Alibhai using mobile technology to monitor older adults with cancer, which I hope will be presented soon in international meetings.

My technical fellowship was an incredible and very fulfilling experience. Being able to spend time with Dr Alibhai allowed me to understand the way in which a highly functioning center of excellence provides care for older adults with cancer, and this will undoubtedly be translated to better care for my patients in Mexico, as well as to further collaborations across North America.