Front-line troops from a decades-long war will roll into Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, amid their latest efforts to engage the enemy across the Emirates. But as its decidedly non-macho moniker suggests, the Pink Caravan has an unusual adversary: cancer.
Set up three years ago by the charity Friends of Cancer Patients, the Pink Caravan is confronting breast cancer by combining education with medical screening.
To date, its specialists have examined more than 20,000 women (and several thousand men, as they too sometimes develop the disease). How many lives they have saved is hard to say, though early detection is seen as critical to winning the war against cancer.
After all, the sooner the "weaponry" of anti-cancer drugs can be applied, the better the chances of victory. Early detection cuts five-year mortality rates from a fearsome 85 per cent for late-stage disease to just 7 per cent.
Certainly, in the case of breast cancer - notoriously common among young women in the UAE - doctors have some impressive drugs in their armamentarium. But doctors are still far from total victory with this disease - let alone the 200-plus other cancers to which humans fall prey. Now growing numbers of medical scientists are wondering if the time has come to give up the old metaphors of "wars" and "victories" - and not only for cancer, but for other diseases as well.
The rethink follows ever-increasing evidence that in many cases, a permanent cure may never be achievable. Yet far from being defeatist, this acceptance of the limitations of medicine is breaking an intellectual logjam. In particular, it is leading to the growing awareness that "incurable" need no longer be a synonym for "without hope".
Such a seismic shift in attitude has already taken place with respect to another much-feared killer.
Like cancer, Aids became the focus of a "war" of which the aim was nothing less than final victory in the form of a permanent cure.
And at first there seemed hope of finding one. The virus responsible was identified in 1983, and within a few years a promising anti-viral drug, zidovudine (often called AZT), was in clinical trials. Yet with patients given the drug still succumbing with depressing speed, initial optimism gave way to gloom.
HIV, the virus responsible for Aids, proved far more resilient than anyone expected, constantly evolving to evade attack. But in the mid-1990s, medical scientists began to realise that while a cure may be elusive, it may at least be possible to contain the virus.
This led to the emergence of so-called Highly Active Anti-Retroviral therapy (HAART), in which HIV is hit by several anti-viral drugs simultaneously.
The effects were dramatic, with up to 80 per cent declines in death rates. While not cured, those patients able to sustain the demanding drug regimen typically keep HIV at bay for an extra 15 years.
Now cancer treatment may benefit from a similarly radical re-think. For while there have been many impressive results from drug therapy - notably childhood leukaemia and testicular cancer - the fact remains that most cancers continue to defy the quest for cures. Could containment be the best approach for these as well? Some cancer experts think so, not least because cancer cells are even more adept at dodging drugs than HIV.
While there are many different types, all cancers begin with a single renegade cell whose genes have gone wrong, promoting uncontrolled replication. The result is exponential growth in the number of cancer cells - which run into billions by the time they are detected by screening. But these descendents of the original cell aren't all exact copies; they too have undergone their own mutations, creating a vast and varied community of cancer cells, all with their own quirks.
Anti-cancer drugs may kill off many or even most of them, but chances are some will have traits allowing them to resist the drug - and it only takes one to do so for the cancer to start all over again. Worse, those cancer cells that do survive face less competition from others and are thus able to thrive, in a deadly cellular version of Darwinian evolution.
The implications of all this for cancer therapy are now becoming clear: in the war on cancer, doctors need to fight smarter.
One of the leading proponents of this strategy is Dr Robert Gatenby of the Moffitt Cancer Centre in Tampa, Florida. He draws analogies between cancer cells and agricultural pests. Some aren't very adaptive and can be eradicated with aggressive treatment - like ant infestation. But most are highly effective at evolving defences and need a smarter approach.
One possible line of attack centres on exploiting the fact that in acquiring drug resistance, cancer cells become less adept at growing and spread through the body. In 2009, Dr Gatenby and his colleagues used computer models to show that overly aggressive drug therapy can thus prove lethally counter-productive.
This paradoxical finding may explain why conventional high-dose chemotherapy can trigger a lethal resurgence of the disease.
It also fits in with experiments by an international team of researchers, reported last month in the journal Nature. In studies involving mice, the team found that skin cancer cells not only evolved resistance to drug treatment, but actually thrived on it.
This has led the team to propose that drugs may work better if patients are left untreated for a while, to slow the proliferation of cancer cells that thrive on the drugs.
This, in turn, points to a more long-term view of cancer treatment, where the disease is not "attacked" for months, but contained for years - even decades.
We can expect more counter-intuitive insights as this new approach to the war on cancer gathers momentum. Whether they will be put into action by today's "troops" in the medical profession, long used to talk of a final victory, remains to be seen.
Robert Matthews is visiting reader in science at Aston University, Birmingham, England
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
FIGHT%20CARD
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PROFILE BOX
Company name: Overwrite.ai
Founder: Ayman Alashkar
Started: Established in 2020
Based: Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai
Sector: PropTech
Initial investment: Self-funded by founder
Funding stage: Seed funding, in talks with angel investors
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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If you go...
Fly from Dubai or Abu Dhabi to Chiang Mai in Thailand, via Bangkok, before taking a five-hour bus ride across the Laos border to Huay Xai. The land border crossing at Huay Xai is a well-trodden route, meaning entry is swift, though travellers should be aware of visa requirements for both countries.
Flights from Dubai start at Dh4,000 return with Emirates, while Etihad flights from Abu Dhabi start at Dh2,000. Local buses can be booked in Chiang Mai from around Dh50
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
What is hepatitis?
Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, which can lead to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer.
There are 5 main hepatitis viruses, referred to as types A, B, C, D and E.
Hepatitis C is mostly transmitted through exposure to infective blood. This can occur through blood transfusions, contaminated injections during medical procedures, and through injecting drugs. Sexual transmission is also possible, but is much less common.
People infected with hepatitis C experience few or no symptoms, meaning they can live with the virus for years without being diagnosed. This delay in treatment can increase the risk of significant liver damage.
There are an estimated 170 million carriers of Hepatitis C around the world.
The virus causes approximately 399,000 fatalities each year worldwide, according to WHO.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The biog
Most memorable achievement: Leading my first city-wide charity campaign in Toronto holds a special place in my heart. It was for Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women program and showed me the power of how communities can come together in the smallest ways to have such wide impact.
Favourite film: Childhood favourite would be Disney’s Jungle Book and classic favourite Gone With The Wind.
Favourite book: To Kill A Mockingbird for a timeless story on justice and courage and Harry Potters for my love of all things magical.
Favourite quote: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Winston Churchill
Favourite food: Dim sum
Favourite place to travel to: Anywhere with natural beauty, wildlife and awe-inspiring sunsets.