Ipsen

Ipsen Trainee Travel Award 2010

The Medical Oncology Group of Australia is pleased to call for applications for the Ipsen Trainee Travel Award 2010. This award, generously supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Ipsen Pty Ltd, will provide $5,000 for the successful recipient to attend a major European oncology meeting in 2010.
 
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Applications are now open and close on Friday 23 April 2010.

 
 
Past Award Recipients:
 

Dr Yu Jo Chua
I was fortunate to have been awarded this year’s MOGA-Ipsen Trainee Travel Award which I used to support my attendance at the 33rd European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress which was held in Stockholm, Sweden from the 12th to the 16th of September 2008. In addition to being a valuable part of my training, an abstract of which I was a co-author had been accepted for presentation. True to my expectations, the 33rd ESMO Congress had an excellent program of educational presentations, of which I prioritized attending sessions on breast, non-small cell lung and prostate cancer, as well as less common tumour types such as germ cell tumours and sarcomas. Having last attended ESMO in 2004, I was struck by the improvement in the quality of presentations from the speakers, for many of whom English was not their primary language. Also there was greater international diversity of the presenters, with several abstracts submitted by groups from the Far East and Asia-Pacific region, reflecting the increasingly global nature of the oncology research community.
 
Highlights of the clinical trials results presented at this meeting include: the efficacy of continuing trastuzumab use in HER2 positive advanced breast cancer after progression on trastuzumab containing treatment; TAC (docetaxel, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide) versus FAC (5-fluorouracil, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide) as adjuvant treatment in high risk lymph node negative breast cancer; the addition of the anti-vascular endothelial growth factor antibody bevacizumab to cisplatin and gemcitabine in advanced non-small cell lung cancer; further data on K-ras as a negative predictive factor for the use of anti-epidermal growth factor antibodies in metastatic colorectal cancer, including updated results from the CRYSTAL trial and new results from the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group-Australasian Gastrointestinal Trials Group CO-17 trial; and long term result from the addition of mitomycin-C and 5-fluorouracil to radiotherapy as definitive treatment for squamous carcinoma of the anus. A city which has been in existence from at least the 13th century, central Stockholm and in particular the ‘Old Town’ of Gamla Stan is certainly full of history, charm and architectural interest. September was also an ideal time to visit as all was still green and lush, with only a hint of chill in the air heralding the end of the splendour of the Scandinavian summer. However, all rumours of the high cost of living in Sweden are not exaggerated.
 
I am grateful to MOGA and to Ipsen for providing this grant. Attendance and participation in the major international oncological scientific meetings contributes significantly to our ability to keep abreast with the developments in our rapidly advancing specialty, particularly so when research and clinical trials activity should be very much an integral part of our clinical practice. In addition to continuing education, these international gatherings are also valuable opportunities to meet with research collaborators and with colleagues from Europe and the US. While opportunities for trainees to travel to these conferences are still relatively limited, grants such as these encourage trainees to incorporate meeting attendance and participation as part of their professional development, and should be made more widely available. --Dr Yu Jo Chua
 

Dr Fiona Chionh
At the end of the Avenida Diagonal in Barcelona, set against a backdrop of the stunning blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea and pristine golden sands spotted with small beach cafés (each with their own obligatory outdoor DJs and adjacent tanned sunbakers), lay the imposing Centre Convencions Internacional Barcelona. This was to be my daily destination for the five days of the ECCO 14 European Cancer Conference in September, 2007.
 
The sessions which I found to be particularly thorough and informative included the educational symposia on the adjuvant treatment of Stage II and III colon cancer and the management of central nervous system complications of cancer (which included lectures on the role of intrathecal chemotherapy in leptomeningeal metastases in solid tumours and the management of metastatic epidural spinal cord compression), as well as a teaching lecture which provided a concise update on adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. However, the highlight of my week was the highly entertaining and charged Oxford-style debate on whether intraperitoneal chemotherapy should be standard of care for first-line treatment in epithelial ovarian cancer. The audience was provided with opportunities at various times during the debate to express whether they were ‘for’ or ‘against’ the use of intraperitoneal chemotherapy as first-line in this setting; at the conclusion of the debate, it appeared that most of the audience were not in favour. Throughout the week, there were also wonderful opportunities to see the breadth of European oncological research presented and to be able to discuss the details of the research with their presenters. I found ECCO 14 to be a truly invaluable experience and would like to thank MOGA and IPSEN for assisting with my attendance. --Dr Fiona Chionh