Port Sudan:
The Federal Minister of Health, Dr. Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim, and the Director of the National Center for Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases, Dr. Abdelmonem Al-Tayeb, met with Dr. Ahmed Omar, Consultant in Endoscopic Surgery and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, in the presence of Mamoun Abdelhay Abdullah, representative of Tabashir, the agent of Mindray Global Company. The meeting discussed training opportunities in China. Dr. Ahmed Omar and Dr. Hassan Al-Tijani previously attended a three-month fully funded training program by Mindray Global Company, which included hands-on practical training and manual training in advanced gastric endoscopic surgeries at the China International Training Academy of Gastric Surgery (CINTAGAS). The training was described as extremely beneficial.
Dr. Abdelmonem Al-Tayeb, Director of the National Center for Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases, told the press after his meeting with Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim that the purpose of the meeting was to highlight the importance of the training course, discuss the establishment of an Upper Gastrointestinal Department at the National Center, and explore opportunities for collaboration between the Ministry of Health and China. He emphasized the necessity of adopting similar training programs for other healthcare staff to advance this specialized field.
Dr. Ahmed Omar provided an introduction to CINTAGAS (China International Training Academy of Gastric Surgery).
The Gastric Cancer Center at the First Hospital of Nanjing Medical University was established in March 2024, evolving from the previous Gastric Surgery, General Surgery, and Oncology departments. The hospital encompasses all medical specialties, with over 5,500 clinical staff and more than 7,000 employees.
Currently, the Chinese Gastric Surgery Center has 26 doctors, 33 nurses, a database manager, and one laboratory staff member, including 11 senior, 10 intermediate, and 7 junior titles. There are a total of 110 wards, including 80 for surgery and 30 for comprehensive treatment. The center performs over 1,000 gastric cancer surgeries annually, making it the largest unit for these cases in Jiangsu Province. Last year, the center conducted more than 1,800 gastric cancer surgeries, including 1,578 endoscopic gastric surgeries, making it one of the units with the highest number of endoscopic gastric surgeries worldwide.
The Gastric Cancer Center has received numerous local and international accreditations, including the Endoscopic Surgery Training Base of the Chinese Medical Association (2006), the Residency Training Base of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (2011), and the Residency Training Base of the Royal College of Surgeons (2014).
The center keeps pace with international developments in minimally invasive and non-surgical gastric cancer diagnosis and treatment. It has performed many first-of-their-kind procedures in China, including:
First 3D laparoscopic radical gastrectomy (2013)
First laparoscopic gastrectomy with uncut Roux-en-Y reconstruction (2014)
First laparoscopic gastrectomy with double-tract reconstruction (2015)
First laparoscopic gastrectomy with Kamikawa esophagogastric reconstruction (2017)
First laparoscopic gastrectomy with side-to-side esophagogastric anastomosis (2018)
First total laparoscopic gastrectomy with pre-cut π-mesenteric reconstruction globally.
Last year, the center’s laparoscopic surgery rate reached 86%, one of the highest rates worldwide. To date, the center has conducted over 50 local and international training sessions on endoscopic gastric cancer and demonstrated live surgeries more than 60 times nationwide and twice internationally. It has organized over 40 patient education events. Since 2014, the center has established an MDT outpatient clinic for gastric cancer, serving nearly 3,000 patients.
Since its inception in 2014, the center team has undertaken 34 research projects, including 14 funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), one international collaborative project with NSFC, one major sub-project for the Ministry of Science and Technology, and 18 provincial-level projects. The team has won five awards above the regional and ministerial levels and published a total of 143 SCI-indexed research papers in high-impact journals such as Gastroenterology, Oncogene, Molecular Cancer, Redox Biology, and others.
The Federal Minister of Health emphasized the importance of continuing cooperation and training with Chinese institutions, utilizing shared protocols, and developing training protocols to further enhance expertise in this field.
