About FARO
In November 2012, during the 25th Annual Meeting of JASTRO held in Tokyo, the delegates from Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Philippines, and India initiated an informal discussion about the formation of federation of radiation oncology in the Asian region. The participating delegates agreed that such a federation will facilitate the communication among the radiation oncology professionals within the region and also with the counterparts around the world, and this effort will facilitate the growing development of radiation oncology in Asia and benefit the radiation oncology communities in the region. The delegates agreed to pursue this idea further.
The initial effort to establish the federation was continued through e-mail communications with coordination by the Japanese colleagues, and, in November 2013, the first Preparatory Meeting for “Asian federation for radiation oncology” was held in Bangkok, Thailand, with participation of 11 countries, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The delegates from these 11 countries all agreed to the formation of the federation and devised the Constitution of the Federation in the Meeting.
Photo from the Preparatory Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand in November 2013.
On November 3, 2014, the Meeting in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, the Federation of Asian Organizations for Radiation Oncology (FARO) was formed with participation of the 11 Member Organizations. The Members Organizations were Bangladesh Society of Radiation Oncologists (BSRO), Chinese Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology (CSTRO), Association of Radiation Oncologists of India (AROI), Indonesian Radiation Oncology Society (IROS), Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology (JASTRO), Korean Society for Radiation Oncology (KOSRO), Malaysian Oncological Society (MOS), Phillippine Radiation Oncology Society (PROS), Singapore Radiological Society (SRS), Sri Lanka College of Oncologists (SLCO), and Thai Association of Radiation Oncology (THASTRO). In this Meeting, the first FARO Council Officers were elected: the President – Prof. Masahiro Hiraoka, Vice-President – Prof. Ramesh Bilimagga, Secretary General – Prof. Takashi Nakano, Treasurer – Prof. Xianshu Gao, and President-elect – Prof. Soehartati Gondhowiardjo.
On May 30, 2015, the 1st FARO Council Meeting was held in Kyoto International Convention Center in Japan, and the press conference was held to announce the initiation of FARO. In the FARO Council Meeting, the status of radiation oncology and radiation oncology training of the participating countries were shared, and the future collaboration in education and research was discussed among the FARO Member Countries.
Photo from the 1st FARO Council Meeting in Kyoto, Japan in May 2015.
In November 2016, the first scientific meeting of FARO was held in Kyoto, Japan as “FARO Meeting”. Until today, the total of 4 FARO Meetings have been held successfully: 2nd FARO Meeting (2017) in Bengaluru, India, 3rd FARO Meeting (2018) in Bali, Indonesia, and the 4th FARO Meeting (2019) in Shenzhen, China. The Meetings have attracted scientific papers from the Member Countries and provided opportunities for the Asian radiation oncologists to convene, exchange information, nurture friendships, and empower ourselves. FARO also provide travel grants to the young scientists and hold leadership development program for the future leaders in the radiation oncology community of Asia.
As of 2020, FARO has 14 official Member Organizations (the 11 original Member Organizations plus Pakistan Society for Clinical Oncology, Myanmar Society for Radiation Oncology, and Mongolian Society for Radiation Oncology) and 2 valuable Corporate Members (Varian Medical System and ELEKTA KK).