Formation of the Oncological Society of Bengal and its past performances

Cancer treatment in Kolkata started long back , mostly in the Govt. setups and few private hospitals and Nursing homes. Although Radiation oncologists were treating in govt. sectors Surgical oncology flourished in Chittaranjan Cancer Hospital and few other private centres. As there was no qualified medical oncologist, this discipline was manned by either radiation oncologists or the surgeons themselves . The clinical oncologists , Surgical, Radiational and medical oncologists had their respective professional bodies and there was no direct interaction of various clinicians practicing Oncology in the state. There was no common platform for the various oncologists to interact and exchange their views in Kolkata and West Bengal. So, the necessity of a common organization came in the minds of many and they sat together after the 1 st Indian Cancer Congress held in November 2013, at New Delhi , and decided to come up with an association where all clinicians of all divisions of Oncology will join . Several group meetings were held at different places with various oncologists and finally in a meeting held at International club , Shakespeare Sarani , patroned by Dr A P Majumdar it was resolved that an association of the different types of oncologists should come up and Dr Prabir Bijoy Kar , surgical oncologist volunteered to carry forward the various procedures and formalities and the present association was formed. Initially it was named Bengal Cancer Society , but the Registration authority wanted a change in the name and ultimately it was given the present name.

Accordingly, Oncological Society of Bengal was established in 2014 and was registered with the West Bengal Societies Registration Act 1961 (S/2L no. 27043of 2014/15 Dt 21.10.2014), with its Regd. Office at 114/1, Bosepukur Purbapara Rd, Kolkata 700107, which was the residential address of Dr Prabir Bijoy Kar.

Initial Governing / Executive Body that applied for Registration consisted of Dr A P Majumdar as its President and Dr Arunabha Sengupta as Vice President, Dr Prabir Bijoy Kar was the Secretary and Dr Pradip Kumar Maiti was the Treasurer. Twenty (20) members applied for the registration which included Dr Shibashish Bhattacharya , Dr Jaydip Biswas, Dr Siddhartha Basu, Dr Arnab Gupta, Dr Madhuchanda Kar, Dr Subir Ganguly, Dr Santanu Pal, Dr Gautam Mukhopadhyay,, Dr Prabrajya Narayan Mahapatra, Dr Saikat Gupta, Dr Aloke Ghosh Dastidar, Dr Samir Bhattacharya , Dr Subrata Saha, Dr Litan Naha Biswas, Dr Sharadwat Mukhopadhyay, Dr Sanjay Kumar Das and the four Office bearers.

The Founder President Dr A P Majumdar passed away on 5 th April, 2015 and Dr Arunabha Sengupta , the then Vice President was requested to officiate as President of the Association.

Clinical meetings and CMEs were organized at intervals at different institutes and the Ex. Com. felt that an Annual conference can be organized to consolidate and promote the association.

The 1 st annual conference of the Association ( Bengal Cancer Summit 2015)was held at Hotel Pride on 31 st October, 2015 with Organisig Chairman Dr Arunabha Sengupta, Conference Director Dr Chanchal Goswami and Dr Prabir Bijoy Kar as Organising Secretary. The theme of the conference was “ Colo-rectal cancers- Emerging concepts ”. Dr Bhabotosh Biswas, VC, W B Univ. of Health Sciences inaugurated and Dr Susanta Kr Banerjee , DME , Govt. of WB invited as the Guest –in- Chief, but he could not come due to some unforeseen circumstances. It was a huge success , where !65 delegates and 5 national faculties participated. There was a gala banquet and Cultural evening.

For convenience the office of the Indian Cancer Society at 6G Elgin Road was considered as city office of the association. Dr Arunabha Sengupta was the President of Indian Cancer Society, Kolkata, during that period and on his advice and initiative this city office was finalized. The staffs of Indian cancer Society also participated regularly in the annual conferences of the association.

2 nd annual conference ( Bengal Cancer Summit 2016) was held on 22 nd October , 2016 at P C Chandra’s Garden, E M Bypass. The Theme of the conference was “ Gynecological Cancers -Emerging concepts ”.145 delegates and 3 National faculties participated .There was very high quality lunch and Banquet dinner . Dr Madhuchanda Kar was the Conference Director, Dr Arunabha Sengupta and Dr Prabir Bijoy Kar were Organising Chairman and Secretary respectively. From that year felicitation of a senior oncologist for life time contribution in the field of oncology and the Sudha Rani Sengupta memorial oration were started. Dr Ajit Kr Mukherjee , the stalwart Radiotherapist of yesteryears was the first recipient of this felicitation programme. Dr Rudrangshu Mukherjee, VC of Ashoka University , Haryana ,inaugurated and Dr Arup Kr Majhi, renowned gynecologist was the Guest in Chief. The first orator of Sudha Rani Sengupta memorial oration was Dr S P Somasekhar of Manipal Hospital , Begaluru, who spoke on HIPEC. This oration was sponsored by Dr Arunabha Sengupta who donated a sum of Rs
to run the oration in memory of his mother.

3 rd annual conference ( Bengal Cancer Summit 2017) was held on 14 th October, 2017 at Hotel Gateway, E M Bypass with the theme “Uro oncology- Emerging concepts”. Dr Litan Naha Biswas was the Conference director, Dr A Sengupta and Dr P B Kar as organizing Chairman and Secretary, respectively. Dr Debasis Bhattacharya , DME , Govt. of W B inaugurated the conference. Dr R N Brahmachari was the Special guest and was he was also felicitated for his lifetime contribution in the field of oncology. Dr Ganesha Gopalakrishnan , famous urologist delivered the oration. 142 delegates and 3 national faculties
participated.

The association gained popularity amongst the oncologists and on receiving offer from Indian Society of Oncology to hold the 1 st midterm conference of ISO , the E C members decided to hold the Bengal Cancer Summit 2018 and ISO midterm jointly. Accordingly this National conference is being organized on 3 rd and 4 th November, 2018 at Hotel Radisson Kolkata Ballygunge. Nearly 350 delegates and faculty members are expected to participate in this meet.