At this WCC 2024 I talked about our project in Côte d’Ivoire Cancer Center. Actually, this is the first comprehensive cancer centre in Côte d’Ivoire, so we are trying our best in making a good cancer centre in Côte d’Ivoire, also in entire Africa. We talked about our project in the podium that actually Korea is the poorest country in the world in the 1950s but we developed our economy and since the 1980s we started helping others. But the result is not so good because we built many good hospitals around the world but they usually failed, because they don’t have a good ability to maintain the hospitals or cancer centres made by Korea.

We thought the way that we have to make education and training before the cancer hospital, and after hospital opened, we have to follow up and guide the hospital. This is the first trial of  the Korean government, and entire Korea, to make a pre-training and post-follow-up pattern of the hospital. Samsung Corporation makes the entire plan, and we participate at the education and training, and the follow-up guiding of the new cancer centre in Côte d’Ivoire.

What are the lessons you’ve learned from this project, and how can other LMICs follow these guidelines?

Actually, to make a better country with cancer control, the national cancer control programme is important. For the national cancer control programme, the comprehensive cancer centre is also important, because a good cancer control programme requires many great personnel of surgery, of physicians and pathologists, radiologists and radiation oncologists, and also epidemiologists, and also statisticians. Everybody is important, but usually we cannot gather together this expertise, so making a good cancer centre where we can gather together every good brains to one place and make a good plan. So, we hope that this, our first comprehensive national cancer centre in Côte d’Ivoire, will make a good cancer control plan in Côte d'Ivoire and make a healthy country in Africa.

What is the National Radiotherapy and Medical Oncology Center Project?

This was our first thought, about six or seven years ago, but it is planned and the government supplied and the contract was made in 2021. The contract was the Department of Health and Hygiene in Côte d’Ivoire and Samsung Corporation. The money is supported by the Korean government, but the Côte d’Ivoire government opened a chance to make a good cancer centre. So Samsung Corporation was selected and NCC Korea was a member of this consortium of the Samsung Corporation. We started in 2021 and the building of the cancer centre was started in 2022, but at the time there was a problem that the land had just so many water. So if you dig the land, the water comes out, so actually we changed a little bit. So the building is now nearly made up and next year, next summer maybe, we have a good cancer centre in Côte d'Ivoire.

But the other problem is the language. As you know, Korea is influenced by the United States a little bit, and so we are familiar with English but not familiar with French. But actually, when I was young, many Koreans learnt German and French, as a third language, but nowadays in Korea German and French is not a good third language, maybe Chinese and Japanese. So the language was another problem but we recruited many good French-speaking expertise in Korea, so we have ten or twenty good French speakers and interpreters in the NCC Korea. From that point, we are also another project for the Francophonie African countries, about the same project or others.

What are the future plans?

Actually, we are planning many projects in the Middle East, Asia, and also the Russian-speaking countries, including Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, also in Ukraine. In these days, this area is not a good candidate for our work so we changed a little bit to Africa, and even to South America. We are planning another project in the Francophonie African countries and also the South American countries. We hope that we want to share our experience, from a poor country to a middle-level or high-level country, we can share our experience and knowledge with them. So that’s my hope for the world.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Yes. One thing is that we planned the Côte d’Ivoire Cancer Center, and we are in the middle of the entire course, but 2026, we will finally open the Cancer Center in Côte d’Ivoire, but the importance is after that, 2027, 2028. Many people, many countries, can build a hospital, but that hospital can not go very easily, so we are also trying our best to make a good, sustainable an equitable condition of the Cancer Center in Côte d’Ivoire. So I hope everybody in the world look at Côte d’Ivoire, that the Cancer Center is going well or not.