Welcome everyone, to the Philippine Radiation Oncology Society Annual Convention. Our convention will mark the culmination of the PROS yearlong activities which started with the highly successful first ESTRO-SEAROG-PROS Image-Guided Brachytherapy Course and followed by a series of local and selected internationl wherein many of our RadOnc colleagues attended. PROS is also actively supporting the Radiation Oncology Medical Physics (ROMP) program sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which is being conducted in the various radiation therapy facilities in the country. The residents' research forum is going to be held during the midyear convention in Bohol in April.

This year, we are again synchronizing our convention with that of our mother society, the Philippine College of Radiology. Our theme, "Quality Assurance in Radiation Oncology" express our commitment to provide high quality radiation therapy, as it advances to more sophisticated treatments such as 3D conformal therapy/IMRT, and as it is increasingly being used in multimodality treatments with surgery and chemotherapy. This will ensure safety and efficacy for every patient battling against cancer.

Part of a comprehensive approach to Quality Assurance (QA) is undertaking an audit by a Quality Assurance Team in Radiation Oncology or QUATRO. Together with our own local speakers, we have invited two international experts from the IAEA: Dr. Eduardo Zubizarreta (Argentina), a radiation oncologist and Dr. Brendan Healy (Australia), a medical physicist who will be introducing the QUATRO methodology. This method is now being implemented in radiotherapy centers worldwide.

We also have special lectures on clinical applications of the new radiotherapy technologies from Prof. Bin Teh (USA), Dr. Manjit Singh and Dr. Dayal Chandra Kar (India). To balance the scientific program, the hard-working organizing committee prepares two nights of dinner and fellowship with the aim of promoting friendship and camaraderie among all of us.

I wish to thank all of you who participated and supported the PROS in its activities during the past year and in this convention. We look forward to another great learning opportunity.

Therefore, in order to improve our treatment outcomes, let QUALITY ASSURANCE be synonymous to the practice of Radiation Oncology in the Philippines today.

God bless.