Lastly, CME credited certificates were distributed among the participants of the event.This expert session was attended by students, faculty and invited guests from many meical and dental universities of Karachi. This educational programme was supported by an unrestricted educational grant from MERCK. This event, based on interesting presentations on diagnosis, staging, surgery, adjuvant treatments and clinical cases in head and neck kept the audience captivated throughout the event.A free papers session was conducted in which trainees of different universities and hospitals from all over Pakistan actively participated and presented their papers.This interactive format of the meeting provided an ideal platform to address investigations and explore emerging issues, analysis and easier handling of conflicts in diagnosis and practices, thus, simplifying the management and prevention of cancer in Pakistan.The third and the last interactive session included clinical case presentations from Kiran hospital, Jinnah hospital, Civil hospital and AKUH.The second interactive session based on "ADVANCED DISEASES "focused on uncertainties in decision making", whether cases identified at later stages are really operatable or not? Since late detection makes radical treatment a must, leading to increased morbidity and therefore early diagnosis and treatment enable a safer outcome. The expert panelists included; Dr Zafar Abbas, Dr Shabbir Akhtar, Dr Amir Maqbool, Dr Adnan Ali Zaidi, Dr Shakil Aqil, Dr Muhammed Ali Memon, Dr Kamran Saeed, Dr Yasmeen Rashid, Dr Moeen ul Haq, Dr Syed Manzoor Ali Zaidi and Dr Najeeb Naimatullah.The first one was based on "BASIC HEAD AND NECK ONCOLOGY" in which topics such as premalignant and malignant lesions, the surgical neck and staging moments were discussed. The specialist panel of this session included worthy names, like; Dr Mervyn Hosein, Dr Sobia Bilal, Dr Mahmood Haider, Dr Umer Farooq, Dr Saleem Marfani, Dr Saeed Akhtar, Dr. Sayed Akbar Abbas, Dr Nadeem Abbasi and Dr Ahmed Murtuza.The programme started by interactive format of a meeting including three interactive sessions.The conference theme "back to basics" signified care in the context of overwhelming head and neck cancer burden in the economically disadvantaged setting of Pakistan.A very unique and multidimensional event took place recently in Karachi as Shaukat Khanum Mem-orial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre and MERCK , jointly collaborated and organized an engaging and informative head and neck oncology meeting with the theme "ADVANCING CANCER CARE- HEAD AND NECK :2013 BACK TO BASICS" held recently.
