On 19 November, the Gynaecologic Oncology Unit at the University of Pretoria hosted its annual Research Day to showcase its achievements and advancements in the field. The event was opened by Prof. Priya Soma-Pillay, Chair of the School of Medicine, who welcomed and expressed gratitude to the participants. As in previous years, new, ongoing, completed, and published projects were presented, fostering lively discussions among the multidisciplinary audience.

The first session focused on female genital skin cancer and pre-cancer, treated in a truly multidisciplinary way in collaboration with radiation oncology. Study results pointed out the unique and changing characteristics of our patients, and also showed poor outcomes despite radical treatment, followed by an exploration of the underlying reasons.

In the sessions that followed, follow-up data was shown from some of our collection of HPV-virus and cervical pre-cancer studies, often recently communicated at international events or published. The work focuses mostly on unanswered questions in “real world” research and implementation studies that has the potential to benefit both the participants and the researcher. The UP Department of Virology has been a valuable collaborator for many years. They represented through their participation also our many other national and international co-workers in this field who could not be present.

In the last part of the day, several presentations focused on novel diagnostic approaches using imaging, biochemistry, and molecular tests – we look forward to the final results, hoping for findings that will be implementable. The same holds true for the very exciting work done through our collaboration with the CSIR cancer precision medicine and drug repurposing group planning to further explore and find new drug combinations for highly lethal ovarian and uterine high grade carcinomas. Fresh tumour samples are used to create testable cell cultures for the drug testing platform.

A highlight of this year’s event was the participation and attendance of four recently qualified fellows of our unit – we are particularly proud of these new subspecialists! Without training posts, our trainees are unpaid volunteers working with our team of nine fully trained gynaecologic oncology subspecialists.  Three trainees from African countries (Sudan, Ghana), and one returning to Limpopo province, will all help to further develop the field in their own environments and in areas of huge need. We look forward to follow their careers as clinicians, but also as they become teachers and researchers themselves, hopefully inspired by our enquiring environment and culture.

The research day demonstrated the spirit of collegiality, teamwork and hard work among our team members which is essential for clinical research. We appreciate the support and collaboration of so many people, we are thankful to patient participants and grateful for opportunities and fulfillment in our careers.