Welcome!

I am delighted and honoured to have convened the sixth national Cancer Survivorship Conference which was held on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 March 2023 at the Adelaide Convention Centre. The meeting, delivered in partnership between Flinders University and the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia is returning to my hometown of Adelaide following our virtual event in 2021, and the Sydney meeting in 2019, plus we are celebrating our 10-year anniversary!

Together with the Program Committee, we created an exciting program that showcased innovation in survivorship care, research and policy.  With the theme “SOLIDARITY IN SURVIVORSHIP: BRINGING US TOGETHER” we aimed to highlight the strength we find in each other – whether as health professionals or cancer survivors or both. As always, we looked back to where we came from and where we are going and challenge our assumptions. Some of the topics we explored included overcoming unconscious bias, the individual and system roles in health care delivery, the life transforming experience of a cancer diagnosis, sleep and survivorship, measuring what is important, peer support, and global issues in survivorship.

We hope that the conference encouraged collaborations and engagement among clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and consumers in insightful, bold and collegial conversations about life after cancer diagnosis.

Thank you for travelling to Adelaide. We hope that after months (years!) of isolation and meeting virtually, you were be able to enjoy a genuine, face to face interaction. More than ever, being together a treat in itself!