King Hussein Cancer Center: regional oncology hub but faces workforce and access challenges, keynote speaker says

Dr. Asim Mansour (King Hussein Cancer Center) delivered the Rachel Perlin Award keynote describing Jordan’s cancer landscape and KHCC’s role in addressing gaps in care. Using recent National Cancer Registry data, Mansour said Jordan diagnoses roughly 8,700 new cancer cases annually among its citizens (with additional cases among refugees and medical-tourism patients) and warned that numbers could double by 2040 without intensified prevention and early detection.

Mansour highlighted KHCC’s contributions: transforming a fragmented system into a comprehensive cancer center through clinical programs, a hospital-based registry (80,000 index cases), research infrastructure, and regional clinical trials. He described KHCC’s training programs (in-house specialty training, oncology nursing residency) and clinical advances including bone-marrow transplant and, most recently, introduction of CAR T-cell therapy.

On system challenges, Mansour pointed to a severe tobacco epidemic in Jordan—tobacco prevalence among men is among the world’s highest—and high proportions of late-stage presentation (e.g., up to 80% of colorectal cancer cases diagnosed at stage III–IV). He also described KHCC’s refugee support and the KHCC foundation’s charitable funds, noting that "over the past 20 years we spent $135,000,000 to treat around 5,000 refugees." Mansour concluded by urging international collaboration, targeted research priorities, and investment in centers of excellence to expand access and sustain quality care across low-resource settings.