Public Lecture Series of RGCIRC for Silver Jubilee Celebration

The “C” word (cancer) carries with it social stigma and taboo in many parts of our country and an aggrieved common man along with his caregivers is often perplexed with myriad questions like “why me?”, “could we have prevented it?” and “what can I/we do to alleviate the current situation?”. RGCIRC being one of the best at cancer care delivery in the country, and catering to thousands of such patients each year, decided to not only answer these queries, but also create awareness regarding all nitty gritty related to cancer. On the occasion of 25 years of delivering excellence of cancer care, we held a series of six public lectures, and the topics were carefully decided to encompass all burning questions among the common public.

The topics included “Your Environment and Cancer”, “Infections Causing Cancer”, “Obesity and its Cancer Links”, “Tobacco Cessation Clinic in Oncology Setup”, “Diet and cancer”, and importance of “Community based Cancer Prevention and Screening”. All these were delivered by eminent cancer care experts of national repute from the two premiere cancer care institutes in the country: The Tata Memorial Centre and our own RGCIRC.

In the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, conforming with governmental norms of social distancing, and the increase in cloud based digital meetings, all these lectures were relayed virtually, and were also streamed live on online channels like YouTube to ensure maximum outreach. All these were received with great appreciation, in the form of overwhelming participation in terms of views and interactive question answer sessions of the attendees with the speakers.  All the sessions were well received, and feedback received demonstrated that the topics were pertinent to the general public. At RGCIRC, we will continue to provide not only excellence in cancer care, but also empathy and continued education/awareness to all.