The 57th Medical Symposium officially started on Monday in the nation’s capital that saw over a hundred doctors and medical professions from around the country attend this vital gathering to address issues surrounding cancer and the way forward. In the absence of the National Department of Health Minister (NDoH) Dr. Lino Tom, NDoH Secretary Dr. Osborne Liko gave his remarks on his behalf saying, cancer is a real burden but is also a preventable disease when early detected. Dr. Liko said, cancer affects everyone one-way or the other. He said, PNG has the highest number of cancer cases in the world, especially mouth cancer. “Cancer is becoming a major health problem in the world and PNG is no exception.” “In fact, it has become a real burden for many families and PNG has very high incidents of cancers reported to be around 28% of all cancers in PNG.” “PNG has the highest cancer cases in the world.” Dr. Liko said that 1500 women die from cancer every year of which most are preventable. “The estimated limit of breast cancer is around 76-per-hundrend thousand women population.” “As the government of today, we are taking proactive actions to address many health issues including cancer.” “I am also pleased to inform this forum that the issues of cancer have again been prioritized in the current National Health Plan 2021-2030 and also in the Government’s Medium Term Development Plan for 2023-2027 that is aimed to reduce incidents of cancer and archive affordable quality health care by 2030 and beyond.” Dr Liko further stated that, if we can prevent and detect cancer earlier, the better we can manage the disease with the resources that is available to us. Meanwhile, President of the Medical Society of PNG Professor Nakapi Tefuarani said, the theme for this year is “Holistic Approach to Cancer”, an important issue in PNG and the Asia Pacific region, and the world at large. He said, “We hope that our guest speakers both from internally and overseas will guide us in our plan to form our resolutions to the government of PNG through the National Department of Health at the end of the symposium.”