SPEAKER PROFILES:

Dr Karan Gandhi

Karan R. K. Gandhi is a Consultant General and Hepatobiliary Surgeon at the Department of Surgery, Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi.

Dr. Gandhi graduated from The University of Nairobi to receive his medical degree in 2009 and did a year of internship at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi (AKUH,N) in 2010. He began his surgical training at the University of Nairobi in 2011 and then moved to the University of Cape Town in 2013. He qualified as a Fellow of the College of Surgeons of South Africa in 2018 and then went on to complete his subspecialist certificate training in Surgical Gastroenterology, specifically Hepato-Pancreatico-Biliary (HPB) Surgery, in 2020. He also received a Masters degree in Surgery (MMed) from the University of Cape Town in 2020. In the same year, Dr. Gandhi was also selected to represent Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the IHPBA 2020 International Fellows Retreat in Melbourne, Australia. His main clinical interests lie in Hepatic, Pancreatic and Biliary surgery, as well as gastrointestinal surgery, advanced endoscopy, ERCP and laparoscopy. Within the realm of HPB surgery, his primary focus has been on one of the most neglected diseases in the region, namely hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the Global Surgery 2030 document published by The Lancet Commission in 2015, eastern, western and central SSA were identified as the regions in the world with the greatest unmet needs in surgical care and in a strange coincidence, these are also the regions in SSA with the highest HCC incidence.

Dr. Gandhi has recently joined the AKUH,N as a full-time faculty member in the department of General Surgery, with a view to pioneering and developing HPB Surgery in Kenya, East Africa and SSA as a whole. He sees himself as one of a new generation of HPB surgeons that have a vision of changing the situation in SSA, where delivering a surgical service is hampered by a poorly managed and funded healthcare system, cost of treatment and a shortage of healthcare professionals. With the connections made during his training and the vision and guidance of his mentors, Dr. Gandhi looks forward to creating a network of young HPB surgeons to facilitate this important endeavour. He has helped set up and is currently involved in various multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meetings, including a monthly Sub-Saharan HCC meeting and an international collaborative HCC meeting with Fortis Hospitals in India. He is also actively involved with the HPB service and MDT meetings at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya.

Dr. Gandhi is also passionate about teaching and training of young surgeons in Kenya, especially in the fields of laparoscopy and surgical endoscopy delivery in rural areas. He is a member of the Operating Theatre Practitioners Association of Kenya (OTPAK), where training workshops are organised for surgical trainees in the Kenyan College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA), in order to train and empower them to perform basic laparoscopic surgical procedures in rural centres. His role as a faculty member at the AKUH,N also includes supervision and training of surgical residents, thereby promoting academia alongside clinical service delivery. He plans to set up a surgical registry database in the hospital, which will be used to generate data, audit practice and produce high-quality research that can be published in reputable peer-reviewed journals.

With his solid background, training, passion and networking, Dr. Gandhi believes he is a key player in taking HPB surgery forward on the continent of Africa.

Dr Andrew Odhiambo

Andrew Odhiambo  is a Consultant Physician/Medical Oncologist & Program Director/Lecturer (Medical Oncology Fellowship Program) at the University of Nairobi. Dr. Andrew holds a Master’s degree in Internal Medicine from the University of Nairobi. He has attended preceptorship training in Haematological Oncology & Infectious Diseases from the University of Maryland Marleen & Stewart Greenbaum Cancer Centre in the United States. He later did his Fellowship in Medical Oncology in the United Kingdom and was certified by the Federation of Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom as well as the Association of Cancer Physicians and the European Society for Medical Oncology. He is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh as well as the East, Central & Southern Africa College of Physicians.

He is the outgoing Secretary & former Treasurer of Kenya Society of Haematology & Oncology (KESHO). Dr. Andrew is a member of KAP, ASCO, ESMO, AORTIC & ECSACOP. Dr. Andrew serves as an expert advisor for local and international bodies i.e. MOH, Kenya Cancer Prevention TWG, ASCO & NCCN Cancer Treatment Guidelines Committees. He has published several articles on cancer in both international and local peer reviewed scientific journals.

Dr. Andrew was awarded the prestigious Business Daily Africa Top 40 under 40 men in the year 2017. He is passionate about cancer education and awareness especially through digital platforms. He has over 50 appearances in mainstream local and international TV and print media promoting cancer awareness.
His key areas of sub specialization and interest include Colon cancer, Stomach cancer, Breast Cancer, Pancreatic, Liver & Bile Duct cancer, Cancer or Unknown Primary, Lymphoma as well as newer treatments i.e. Immunotherapy & Targeted therapy for Colon, Skin, Lung, Kidney cancers etc. For his full profile, please visit www.drandrewodhiambo.com

Dr Manel Haj Mansour

Manel Has Mansour is a Consultant Physician and board-certified Medical Oncologist currently working at the Aga Khan University Hospital. She was formerly a consultant medical oncologist at Texas Cancer Centre, Nairobi and also worked as a consultant medical oncologist and a lecturer at Abderrahmen University Hospital, Tunisia.

Dr. Mansour graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis in 2012 and completed medical oncology residency in 2017.
She holds:
·       A certificate of completion of Oncologic Science Course on line in Breast Cancer
Treatments from The Africa Breast University.
·       A certificate of medical oncology training on XXXIIth course antitumor
chemotherapy and cancer medical treatment at Gustave Roussy Institute Paris, France.
·       A post graduate certificate in Prevention and Palliative Care in Oncology, Faculty of Medicine of Sousse.
·       A post graduate certificate in Thoracic Oncology, Faculty of Medicine of Tunis.
·       A post graduate certificate in Breast Disease, Faculty of Medicine of Tunis.

She is a member of ESMO, ASCO, STOM (Tunisian Society of Medical Oncology) and KESHO. Her areas of interest include breast cancer, lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, gynecological and genitourinary cancers.

Dr Ahmed Komen

Dr Ahmed Komen is a Clinical Radiation Oncologist. He is a fellow of College of Medicine South Africa and holds a Master of Medicine in Radiation Oncology from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Dr Komen is a consultant at Kenyatta National Hospital and a part time faculty member at Aga Khan University Hospital.

He is an active member of various multi-disciplinary tumour boards and the Kenya Society of Haematology and Oncology (KESHO).
Moderator: Dr Tracy Irura

Tracy Irura is a Senior Registrar in Clinical Oncology at Kenyatta University Teaching, Research and Referral Hospital.

She holds a Master’s in Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine from Alexandria University, Egypt.

Dr Irura is the co-founder of the Integrated Cancer Research Foundation of Kenya an NGO that seeks to rid Africa of the cancer burden and be a leading cancer research organization in the world.