ESMO Wrap-up: The Global Village That Is Oncology
ESMO Wrap-up: The Global Village That Is Oncology
I'm David Kerr. I'm Professor of Cancer Medicine from University of Oxford, and, for this year, I'm President of the European Society of Medical Oncology. We're enjoying our 35th annual congress here in Milan. William Shakespeare once said, "All of life is a journey to find home," and we, as European oncologists, are finding our home for this week at this wonderful conference in this historic and great city of Milan.
It's a wonderful time for European oncology. We think we've been rising and moving from strength to strength, and I think the depth of science, the quality of the clinical trials, the size of the meeting -- we have 15,000 attendees -- all attest to that. One of the things that I feel particularly proud about, being President of ESMO, is that we encircle and encompass the world. There are 115 different countries attending the meeting here, over 12,000 doctors, and I've taken particular pleasure, particularly with my colleagues from Japan and from China, in co-chairing some of the special sessions that we've put together.
I believe that as we understand more about the genetics of cancer, we understand more about its cell biology. As Francis Bacon said, in a political context, "knowledge is power," and the more we share knowledge, the more we, in a way, celebrate our ethnic diversity, the more we understand the cancer problem. That became very clear to me in the joint symposium we chaired with the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology and our Japanese brothers and sisters.
There were some groundbreaking studies reported in which it's very obvious, particularly in the field of lung cancer, that we have moved from empirical clinical observation -- understanding that particular subsets of lung cancer patients seemed to respond particularly well to tyrosine kinase inhibitors -- to a series of molecular observations, which have led us to be able to define which patients we should treat most, not only in Japan and China, but also in the West.
This, it seems to me, exemplifies beautifully why cancer has become a global village because, if we contrast/compare, if we are clinically aware enough, then this can give us the insights we need to treat our patients better. That's a particularly beautiful example, I think, of how Northern American, European, and Asian science can cooperate and work together for the benefit of all patients, and, again, I say it's through celebrating genetic diversity.
That can only come, though, if we believe in the quality of the data, and if we work together to improve the standard, the size of clinical trials. Cancer trials are now global. The major pharmaceutical companies and the major academic centers recruit patients from North America, from Europe, and from Asia. And by doing preplanned subgroup analyses, we can look at ethnic differences that might be not only genetically important, but also practically and clinically important to the decisions that you and I make when we're faced with an individual patient sitting before us in our own cancer office. This ESMO congress has been a great celebration of the bio-diversity of cancer leading to some, I believe, practice-changing clinical trials.
I think the degree of cooperation between ASCO and ESMO is increasing. We're sister organizations. We have enormous intellectual respect for each other. In the old days, almost 50% of the attendees at the ASCO meeting came from Europe, but I think increasingly -- and I'm pleased to say this as ESMO President -- that we are starting to bring our high-quality trials not only to ASCO, but to ESMO too.
This year there will be practice-changing reports in advanced ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and lung cancer. We Europeans would be very keen to welcome our American colleagues, increasingly, to attend the ESMO meeting.
Not only are we interested in the groundbreaking phase 3 trials -- I did a small calculation, and when we look at the randomized trials presented here, they encompass a patient group of 63,000 patients -- and that tells another story about the power of partnership. We invite our patients to join us in the clinical trials that we perform, and this exemplifies another strength that we, the cancer community, have -- namely that depth of relationship with our patients who volunteer to help us to improve the quality of cancer care.
At this meeting, we've had 500 patient representatives. We have a wonderful program for the patients and advocates, and again, I'm particularly proud of my Italian colleagues for having made the ESMO patient congress such an enormous success. In the name of advocacy, there is much that we can do to drive that forward and make a real difference.
For me, the key elements of this meeting have been how we build in basic and translational signs. How increasingly we're using our large clinical trials base to reflect our virtuous cycle of knowledge. Often we talk about the trip from the laboratory bench to the patients' bedside, but now I think the cycle is complete, and we go from bench to bedside and back again. Again, at this meeting, there's been some fantastic biomarker work in involving large cohorts of patients in phase 3 trials and carefully annotated clinical data. By collecting germ line DNA and by collecting cancer tissue, we can refine and test further hypotheses on the tumor material that in turn allows us to reflect back into the laboratory and, we hope, improve the quality of the treatment that we deliver.
There have been some great studies in biomarker work involving 3000 patients and a wonderful collaboration between senior European investigators, investigators from North America, from NSABP (National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project), and so on that are really starting to put biomarker work on the map. All of us are waiting for the revolution in human medicine that allows us to personalize treatment -- treating the right patient, at the right time, with the right drugs and the right dose -- and I've no doubt that we, as oncologists, are standard bearers in that revolution of so-called personalized medicine.
At this meeting, we're seeing personalized medicine emerging further for breast cancer and being embedded in lung cancer. We're seeing some major advances coming through in colorectal cancer and getting some major hints in prostate cancer. And we, by dint of the quality of our science, by dint of our increasing understanding of the biology of the cancer, have de facto, actually, become the flag standard bearers for personalized medicine. It's great, and I love it, and we can show that we can lead the way.
Let me invite you to our next ESMO meeting, which will be 37th, which will be in Vienna in September 2012. [Note: In 2011, a joint conference between ESMO and the European Cancer Organization (ECCO) will be held in Stockholm, Sweden.] We can only continue to build on the quality of the science that we have. We can only do that in partnership, and I welcome you to come and join us.
On behalf of Medscape Oncology, this is David Kerr, President, reporting from the 35th annual congress of ESMO, here in the beautiful city of Milan. Thanks for joining us.
I'm David Kerr. I'm Professor of Cancer Medicine from University of Oxford, and, for this year, I'm President of the European Society of Medical Oncology. We're enjoying our 35th annual congress here in Milan. William Shakespeare once said, "All of life is a journey to find home," and we, as European oncologists, are finding our home for this week at this wonderful conference in this historic and great city of Milan.
It's a wonderful time for European oncology. We think we've been rising and moving from strength to strength, and I think the depth of science, the quality of the clinical trials, the size of the meeting -- we have 15,000 attendees -- all attest to that. One of the things that I feel particularly proud about, being President of ESMO, is that we encircle and encompass the world. There are 115 different countries attending the meeting here, over 12,000 doctors, and I've taken particular pleasure, particularly with my colleagues from Japan and from China, in co-chairing some of the special sessions that we've put together.
I believe that as we understand more about the genetics of cancer, we understand more about its cell biology. As Francis Bacon said, in a political context, "knowledge is power," and the more we share knowledge, the more we, in a way, celebrate our ethnic diversity, the more we understand the cancer problem. That became very clear to me in the joint symposium we chaired with the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology and our Japanese brothers and sisters.
There were some groundbreaking studies reported in which it's very obvious, particularly in the field of lung cancer, that we have moved from empirical clinical observation -- understanding that particular subsets of lung cancer patients seemed to respond particularly well to tyrosine kinase inhibitors -- to a series of molecular observations, which have led us to be able to define which patients we should treat most, not only in Japan and China, but also in the West.
This, it seems to me, exemplifies beautifully why cancer has become a global village because, if we contrast/compare, if we are clinically aware enough, then this can give us the insights we need to treat our patients better. That's a particularly beautiful example, I think, of how Northern American, European, and Asian science can cooperate and work together for the benefit of all patients, and, again, I say it's through celebrating genetic diversity.
That can only come, though, if we believe in the quality of the data, and if we work together to improve the standard, the size of clinical trials. Cancer trials are now global. The major pharmaceutical companies and the major academic centers recruit patients from North America, from Europe, and from Asia. And by doing preplanned subgroup analyses, we can look at ethnic differences that might be not only genetically important, but also practically and clinically important to the decisions that you and I make when we're faced with an individual patient sitting before us in our own cancer office. This ESMO congress has been a great celebration of the bio-diversity of cancer leading to some, I believe, practice-changing clinical trials.
I think the degree of cooperation between ASCO and ESMO is increasing. We're sister organizations. We have enormous intellectual respect for each other. In the old days, almost 50% of the attendees at the ASCO meeting came from Europe, but I think increasingly -- and I'm pleased to say this as ESMO President -- that we are starting to bring our high-quality trials not only to ASCO, but to ESMO too.
This year there will be practice-changing reports in advanced ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and lung cancer. We Europeans would be very keen to welcome our American colleagues, increasingly, to attend the ESMO meeting.
Not only are we interested in the groundbreaking phase 3 trials -- I did a small calculation, and when we look at the randomized trials presented here, they encompass a patient group of 63,000 patients -- and that tells another story about the power of partnership. We invite our patients to join us in the clinical trials that we perform, and this exemplifies another strength that we, the cancer community, have -- namely that depth of relationship with our patients who volunteer to help us to improve the quality of cancer care.
At this meeting, we've had 500 patient representatives. We have a wonderful program for the patients and advocates, and again, I'm particularly proud of my Italian colleagues for having made the ESMO patient congress such an enormous success. In the name of advocacy, there is much that we can do to drive that forward and make a real difference.
For me, the key elements of this meeting have been how we build in basic and translational signs. How increasingly we're using our large clinical trials base to reflect our virtuous cycle of knowledge. Often we talk about the trip from the laboratory bench to the patients' bedside, but now I think the cycle is complete, and we go from bench to bedside and back again. Again, at this meeting, there's been some fantastic biomarker work in involving large cohorts of patients in phase 3 trials and carefully annotated clinical data. By collecting germ line DNA and by collecting cancer tissue, we can refine and test further hypotheses on the tumor material that in turn allows us to reflect back into the laboratory and, we hope, improve the quality of the treatment that we deliver.
There have been some great studies in biomarker work involving 3000 patients and a wonderful collaboration between senior European investigators, investigators from North America, from NSABP (National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project), and so on that are really starting to put biomarker work on the map. All of us are waiting for the revolution in human medicine that allows us to personalize treatment -- treating the right patient, at the right time, with the right drugs and the right dose -- and I've no doubt that we, as oncologists, are standard bearers in that revolution of so-called personalized medicine.
At this meeting, we're seeing personalized medicine emerging further for breast cancer and being embedded in lung cancer. We're seeing some major advances coming through in colorectal cancer and getting some major hints in prostate cancer. And we, by dint of the quality of our science, by dint of our increasing understanding of the biology of the cancer, have de facto, actually, become the flag standard bearers for personalized medicine. It's great, and I love it, and we can show that we can lead the way.
Let me invite you to our next ESMO meeting, which will be 37th, which will be in Vienna in September 2012. [Note: In 2011, a joint conference between ESMO and the European Cancer Organization (ECCO) will be held in Stockholm, Sweden.] We can only continue to build on the quality of the science that we have. We can only do that in partnership, and I welcome you to come and join us.
On behalf of Medscape Oncology, this is David Kerr, President, reporting from the 35th annual congress of ESMO, here in the beautiful city of Milan. Thanks for joining us.
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