Chairman's Letter
(January 2010)
Gastrointestinal oncology is changing fast and becomes more and more multidisciplinary. The EORTC GI group has always been at the forefront of new developments while maintaining strict scientific rules and operational procedures for reliable clinical trials.
Today, the challenge is to go beyond the classical comparison of drug regimens. We need to incorporate the increasing knowledge of tumor biology and new technical advances and to translate this into scientific clinical practice.
To keep in pace with the increasing complexity and to adapt rapidly to scientific advances, the EORTC GI group has initiated a number of practical changes:
- Organ oriented task forces have been created for gastric/esophageal cancer, pancreas, liver cancer and colorectal cancer, also with the intention to promote the participation of younger group members early in project development on a broad basis
- Focused ‘Perspective Work Shops’ have been organized for Imaging and Immunology to initiate a personal exchange and to sensitize basic researcher as well as clinicians for each others need and problems. With the practical aim to develop ideas for future trials.
- Interaction with other EORTC groups has been reinforced with the aim to exchange representation at the respective group meetings, namely with the Radiation Oncology Group (ROG), the Pharmacology and Molecular Mechanims Group (PAMM). The Elderly Task Force and the newly created Imaging Group.
- A strong effort has been put on a focused evaluation of novel drugs, either through direct exchange with the R&D departments of several pharmaceutical companies or by systematic evaluation of individual tumor characteristics and potential pharmacologic targets with the support of the EORTC EPOD (early project optimisation department).
- Collaboration with the EORTC VTB (virtual tissue bank) has been further refined and practically developed as a strong backbone for correlative translational reaseach allong all future clinical trial.
Besides these new developments, we will keep up our traditions and continue to develop guidelines and to organize educational meetings.
On this webpage, namely in the newsletters, you will find more details and results of the ongoing projects, and also the invitation and agenda of our next group meetings. The task for the next few years will be to keep this momentum going, and to incorporate ideas from our now well-established translational research network. As in the past, we will use our semi-annual meetings as a platform for the continued and lively exchange between multiple disciplines. These meetings are open and we kindly invite you to attend.
Manfred Lutz, Chairman, EORTC GI Group