LuCE present at the ESMO Congress 2023
October 20th-24th in Madrid, Spain
Our president Anne-Marie Baird had an active participation at the ESMO Congress as a speaker/chair. Our board members Erika Pataki, Lavinia Magee, Ewelina Szmytke, Debra Montague, and our Policy Officer, Alfonso Aguarón had a proactive contribution in multiple meetings.
See below for highlights from several of the ESMO 2023 sessions.
The importance to address the caregivers’ needs: The perspective of the caregivers
On Friday, 20th LuCE was invited to one of the Patient Advocacy Sessions where the discussion of ‘The importance of addressing caregivers’ needs: The perspective of caregivers’ took place. The presentation provided an opportunity for questions and discussion with a particular focus on how being a caregiver can have multiple side effects and what the caregiver’s needs are along the patient journey. The meeting included presentations from:
- Bettina Ryll (Uppsala, Sweden), member of Melanoma Patient Network Europe the ESMO Investigational Immunotherapy Faculty Group presented ‘’Caregivers’ needs along the patient journey: What do oncologists need to know?”
- Stecy Yghemonos (Brussels, Belgium) presented ‘’Stecy Yghemonos (Brussels, Belgium)” focusing on the gender dimension of care and caring, the impact of caring and what the carers want.
- Katie Rizvi (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) presented ‘’ Caregivers’ needs along the patient journey: What do nurses need to know?”
- Surabhi Chaturvedi (London, United Kingdom) presented ‘’Caregivers after patient end of life: The caregivers’ role continues…as do their needs!”
- Monick Leal (Lisbon, Portugal) presented ‘’Cancer patient groups and their help to support caregivers: Guide for healthcare professionals”
How to improve access to medicines through patient engagement?
On Friday 20th, the presentation ‘’How to improve access to medicines through patient engagement?” took place, where LuCE was mentioned by MPE as we are too embarking on an Atlas Journey which will see the creation of strong advocacy tool addressing the inequities in access to treatment. The meeting included presentations from:
- André Deschamps (Antwerpen, Belgium) on ‘’The improvement of the regulatory process through the consideration of patients’ reported outcomes during the medicines’ development”
- Katheryn Elun Morgan (Brussels, Belgium) on ‘’A gap analysis on access to modern medicines and treatments: A comparison between West and Eastern Europe”
- Katheryn Elun Morgan (Sundbyberg, Sweden) on ‘’Patient engagement and collaboration with national regulatory agencies”
- Zack Pemberton-Whiteley (Worcester, United Kingdom) on ‘’Leukaemia care and the collaboration with NICE”
Workgroup of European Cancer Patient Advocacy Networks (WECAN) Members Meeting
On Saturday 21st, the Workgroup of European Cancer Patient Advocacy Networks (WECAN) held its Members Meeting, in which our Policy Officer, Alfonso Aguarón was a part of. The discussion started on a project status update was presented for the initiatives of the 23 pan-European cancer patient organisations such as the European Atlas on Clinical Trials in Cancer and Haematology, the WECAN Evidence Based Advocacy Programme and finally, a discussion on the upcoming projects for 2024.
New approaches for technologies, therapies, and surgery
On Saturday 21st, our LuCE president Anne-Marie Baird was a chair for the presentation ‘’New approaches for technologies, therapies, and surgery” where the main discussion focused on AI as a new technology and how personalized treatment is part of the standard of care in tech management of patients. The meeting included presentations from:
- Maria Fernanda Mosele (Villejuif, France) on ‘’How to decide which mutation to investigate and invest in”
- Sergio Sandrucci (Torino, Italy) on ‘’Surgical therapies: What are the new robotic models and how do they support efficient processes in clinical settings?”
- Philip Poortmans (Antwerpen, Belgium) on ‘’Radiation therapies: How do proton beam therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery and gamma knife surgery treat cancer?”
- Pilar Garrido Lopez (Madrid, Spain) on ‘’Identification of new biomarkers in lung cancer”
Managing disease progression in oncogene-driven lung cancer
On Saturday 21st, our LuCE President Anne-Marie Baird was a speaker for the presentation ‘’Managing disease progression in oncogene-driven lung cancer” where she focused on Mechanism of resistance, Broad overview, In vitro models, acquired resistance mutations, Bypass track, Evolutionary models, Tumour microenvironment. The meeting included presentations from:
- Christian D. Rolfo (New York, United States of America) on ‘’Detection: From technology to clinical practice”
- Anne-Marie Baird (Dublin, Ireland) on ‘’Mechanisms of resistance”
- Myung-Ju Ahn (Seoul, Korea, Republic of) on ‘’Managing progression after EGFR TKIs in EGFR-mutant lung cancer”
- Jessica J. Lin (Boston, United States of America) on ‘’Managing progression after TKIs in oncogenic fusion-driven lung cancer”