Dear Colleagues,

I’m delighted to inform you that we have recently been informed that the Gulf Journal of Oncology is now a full fledged indexed journal by the two most prestigious Medical Library databases worldwide, MEDLINE and Pub Med. This is a significant achievement for the journal and for the Gulf Cooperation Council States as very few other scientific journals in the Arab World have achieved such recognition. I’d like to thank Dr Ferid Saleh, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University for his help in this matter.

Since our initial launch of the journal in January 2007, the scientific interest it has inspired in the field of oncology is immense. It’s had a considerable effect in the Gulf Region and as the journal matures it’s becoming more visible to recognize the advantage of this kind of specialized journal in our region. It has not only assisted in creating stronger ties and cooperation between specialists and oncologists in neighboring countries but has also paved the way to developing relations between many cancer societies and organizations both locally and internationally.

The Gulf Federation of Cancer Control being a member of the International Union against Cancer (UICC), were encouraged to form a TNM Committee (Gulf Region) which is a cancer staging committee for the Gulf Region. The first TNM (Gulf Region) committee meeting was held in Kuwait in October, 2009. This is a most important endeavor because the TNM classification is used worldwide and is a benchmark for reporting the extent of disease and is a major prognostic factor in predicting the outcome of patients with cancer. The committee encourages all specialists and oncologists to follow this staging system, which is available to order online at www.uicc.org/tnm. We are to exert all efforts to impose this unified system and register as oncology professionals on a proposed Gulf Regional Database.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who made the recent Third International Conference on The Future of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) held in Kuwait in October, such a success.

As the Gulf Journal of Oncology matures successfully, I’d like to express my deepest appreciation to the team who continuously contribute to the journal’s success.
 

Dr. Khaled A. Al-Saleh,
Editor-In-Chief,
Gulf Journal of Oncology