Dear SIOP members and colleagues,

Our Annual Congress is fast approaching and it is hard to believe that another year of living with the COVID-19 pandemic has gone by.  This has and continues to place enormous stress on healthcare professionals and their patients.  Sharing experiences and learning through our professional network is one of the ways that SIOP is here to support you.  We have all had to make many adaptations to continue our work. It is good to see so many of you planning to attend our second virtual congress, with 2,600 delegates already registered by Sept 2021.  We look forward to welcoming you on-line in October, to hear the latest research in our field and to celebrate our award winners.

The SIOP Board members have been busy over the summer, contributing to several important policy webinars and joint working with the WHO cancer team.  Most recently, we coordinated an informative webinar on childhood cancer in refugee and displaced populations titled “Providing care for children with cancer among refugee and displaced populations” which took place on September 15 (the recording will be made available shortly on the SIOP Knowledge Centre). We are now in the midst of International Childhood Cancer Awareness month, with much activity ongoing globally throughout Gold September.

The SIOP-St Jude COVID collaboration has led to several impactful publications over the summer that contribute to our understanding of how the pandemic has and is affecting children and adolescents with cancer, their families and the workforce. You can find them here or they are all open access on line. We have also initiated a working group to provide more information on COVID vaccines for our community. This is work in progress so watch this space.

We trust that you enjoy reading the achievements of SIOP members highlighted in this September newsletter and continue to find solidarity in our community in these continuing challenging times.

We look forward to seeing you online at SIOP 2021!

Kathy Pritchard-Jones

SIOP President, and on behalf of the SIOP Board of Directors