Dr. Olufunmilayo Olopade, member of the AORTIC Council, and Dr. Sola Olopade, member of AORTIC, graciously held a reception at their lovely home on June 7, 2010 during the 2010 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). It was attended by several members of AORTIC as well as scientific collaborators of the Olopades from all corners of the world, ranging from Korea to Brazil and Eastern Europe.

 Attending the reception also was Dr. Chris Williams, a Co-Founder of AORTIC and the organization’s Founding Secretary-General, who was invited to present AORTIC to the international guests. After alluding to the privilege of teaching and doing research at the University of Ibadan (UI), Nigeria, in the late 1970’s following  his training in Canada and the US, and during which time he met the Olopades as young products of UI    medical school, Dr. Williams commended the Olopades for doing Africa so proud through their scientific work in various parts of the world.   He then described the events leading to the founding of AORTIC at the UICC Congress of 1982 in Seattle, WA, USA, which he attended as the Secretary of the Nigeria Cancer Society (NCS), together with the late Dr. Toriola Solanke, at the time the President of NCS.   Also attending the congress were Dr. Victor Ngu, renown for his wrk on Burkttitt’s lymphoma for which he was honored in the US with the Lasker Award, and Dr. Williams’ mentor in the US, Dr. James Holland, another Lasker awardee. Dr. Williams described how all four met casually during a lunch break at the congress and got into a lengthy discussion of the problems of cancer control in Africa, at the conclusion of which the decision to create the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) was arrived at.   An inaugural meeting   of the new organization followed in Lome, Togo in the following year.

Dr. Williams described as the most notable achievement of AORTIC in the eight years of existence of AORTIC in the 1980’s as the successful completion of a randomized clinical trial   study of the comparative efficacy of two anthracyclines in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma, the world’s most common malignancy. Five different African countries participated in it, a unique achievement in the pre-Internet era yet to be matched in cancer research in Africa. Unfortunately the prevailing transcontinental socioeconomic and political malaise and the poor communication infrastructure of the time resulted in the   collapse and demise of AORTIC before the end of its first decade.  

By the end of the 1990’s, with emergence of encouraging political milieu in Africa, such as the demise of apartheid in South Africa, and the end of military dictatorship elsewhere in Africa, as well as the emergence of the new “information highway” represented by the World Wide Web, it was felt that the atmosphere was more conducive for a successful reactivation of AORTIC.   Thus, with the help of North America based expatriate African cancer care workers and their   non-African friends and collaborators, it was possible to reactivate the organization at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)  in San Francisco on April 3, 2000. In 2003, the reactivated AORTIC was repatriated to Africa.

Unlike its first coming, the reactivated AORTIC has attained its 10^th year of existence and thriving in all the regions of Africa, under an Africa based leadership and an operational office in Cape Town, South Africa. This is an accomplishment worthy of celebration, and it is noteworthy that two eminent AORTIC members have made the commemoration possible in the midst of an international scientific atmosphere.

AORTIC members present at the event included the host and hostess Dr. Sola Olopade and Dr. Funmi Olopade, both of Chicago, Dr. Laura Esserman of San Francisco, Dr. Doris Browne of Washington, DC, Dr. Reginald Ewesuedo, and Dr. Chris Williams, of British Columbia, Canada. Other AORTIC members who were attending ASCO from Africa included Dr. Verna Vanderpuye of Accra, Ghana, Dr. Ayesu of Accra, Ghana, Dr. Nicholas Othieno-Abinya of Nairobi, Kenya, and Dr. Afolabi of Ilorin, Nigeria.

Long live AORTIC