AGITG Annual Scientific Meeting – Brisbane
Convention Centre 31 Oct- 2
Nov 2018
(Written by
Meredith Cummins)
The AGITG ASM
was well attended by over 300 Health Professionals from Australia and New
Zealand. As per previous years this is truly a multidisciplinary meeting which
provides updates on current research and trials for gastrointestinal cancers
and provides a wonderful opportunity to network with national and international
leaders in this field.
Unicorn Foundation CEO Simone Leyden presented data from the INCA/Novartis global survey alongside our recent PET reimbursement survey and Financial Toxicity survey. Please note that the Financial Toxicity survey is still open and we would love to receive more responses to gain greater insight into this area (see below for Simone's slide presentation)
The Unicorn
Foundation (UF) had a booth which enabled health professionals to gain access
to information and dietary booklets and meet with UF staff to discuss projects
currently in progress and future directions in education and collaboration.
Many clinicians also signed up for the Healthcare Professionals eNewsletters as
the awareness of Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs) increases.
The Unicorn
Foundation submitted a poster for the PLANET Registry which gained much
interest from the attendees at the meeting. Within the program were updates on
the Unicorn Foundation funded clinical trial CONTROL NETs (Capecitabine, Temozolomide & PRRT vs
Capecitabine & Temozolomide vs PRRT) which has reached its recruitment target,
NABNEC (A
Randomised Phase II Study Of Nab-paclitaxel In Combination With Carboplatin As
First Line Treatment Of Gastrointestinal Neuroendocrine Carcinomas) which is also studying
tumour cells in detail to understand more about the biology of the tumour
cells, why tumours can have such different outcomes in different patients and
why some tumours become resistant to drugs. NABNEC is currently
recruiting till the latter part of 2019. Simone Leyden presented in the Joint
Consumer / Study Coordinators forum on the afternoon of 1 November. The topic
presented was “Financial Toxicity” which is surveying NET consumers nationally.
The Principal Investigator for this survey is Dr David Wyld and it is being
coordinated by the University of Brisbane and the Unicorn Foundation nationally.
Recruitment for this survey will be completed by the end of November.
There are
increasing areas of Research and Clinical Trials being conducted, of which the
Unicorn Foundation is very active in providing valuable funding to enable this
to improve the care and the outcomes for NET patients.
