The Unicorn Foundation NET Patient Symposium will be held on Sunday November 11th and we extend a warm welcome to anyone with an interest in NETs including patients, carers, family members and health professionals
We are excited to announce our program for the day will includes leaders in NETs from Australia, New Zealand and around the world. Please click here for full copy of program.
Afternoon tea will be provided (please indicate any dietary preferences when booking or email Linda Ryding)
Registration is required for catering so book now to avoid missing out!
Guest speakers include:
Dr James Yao
James Yao, MD, is professor and
chairman of gastrointestinal medical oncology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Houston, Texas, United States. He was the chair emeritus of the North American
Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (NANETS). He has numerous awards including the
American Society of Clinical Oncology Career Development Award 2003, and the
Carcinoid Cancer Foundation Research Award 2006, MD Anderson Distinguished
Alumni Award 2009, Irwin H. Krakoff Excellence in Clinical Research Award 2011,
and The Murray Brennan Distinguished Lecturer, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center, 2012.
In 1995, Dr. Yao received his doctorate
of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States. His
credentials include board of certification in internal medicine (ABIM) in 1999
and board of certification in medical oncology (ABIM) in 2003.
Dr. Yao has special interests in
neuroendocrine tumors and gastric cancer and has authored over 100 manuscripts
including practice-changing articles in New England Journal of Medicine and
Lancet. He has also been a principal investigator in numerous investigator
initiated and multicenter clinical studies. He led the development of
everolimus in neuroendocrine tumors from first patient treated through FDA
approval for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors in 2011 and lung and
gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors in 2016.
Dr Simona Glasberg
Head of the Neuroendocrine Tumor
Unit & Senior Lecturer in Endocrinology, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical
Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
A specialist in endocrinology and
internal medicine, Dr. Glasberg completed a fellowship in Neuroendocrinology at
St. Bartholomew's Hospital & William Harvey Research Institute, London, UK,
exploring the mechanisms by which somatostatin analogues regulate the growth of
NETs, and their interaction with mTOR inhibitors. Established as one of the
foremost experts in the diagnosis and management of NETs in Israel, Dr.
Glasberg is actively involved in both, the care of patients with NETs, as well
as in the research in the field. Dr. Glasberg is a member of the Advisory Board
of the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (ENETS). She has published
extensively in peer-reviewed journals, and presented at national and
international conferences on the topic of NETs. Dr. Glasberg is the recipient
of the prestigious 2017 Lindner Prize of the Israel Endocrine Society, in
recognition for her scientific achievements and contribution in the field of
NETs.
Dr Ben Lawrence
Dr Lawrence is an
Auckland-trained Medical Oncologist who specializes in gastrointestinal cancers
and neuroendocrine tumours. He previously completed a two year research
Fellowship at Yale University studying the molecular biology of Neuroendocrine
tumours, with a focus on developing alternative biomarkers related to tumour
proliferation. He was previously a Drug Development Scholar at TGen in
Scottsdale Arizona. He returned to Auckland in August 2012 and established a
nationwide translational project involving tumour collection (clinically
annotated retrospective and prospective) and developed a virtual multi-centre
tumour board for Neuroendocrine Tumours. Working with Professor Cris Print as a
translational partner, they undertake multi-level genomic profiling of NETs to
create predictive models based in the genomic constituents of each tumour.
Prof Rodney Hicks
Rod is a Professor of Medicine and Radiology at the University of Melbourne and Director of the Centre for Cancer Imaging at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Peter Mac installed the first PET/CT outside Europe and North America in 2001 and now has an experience of over 75,000 PET studies performed in the facility founded by him in 1996. He received a prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council Program Grant in 2013 and an NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship in 2015. He was also induced as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science in 2015.
A/Prof Michael Michael
Assoc. Prof Michael is a
Gastrointestinal and Neuroendocrine Medical Oncologist, with a significant
major track record in academic oncology with considerable expertise in
clinical/translational trials and their design. His Medical Oncology training
was attained at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, he was a Clinical Fellow to
the Department of Medicine at the Princess Margaret Hospital/Ontario Cancer
Institute in Toronto, Canada, pursuing his research in gastrointestinal
oncology. He was awarded the degree of Doctorate of Medicine (Monash
University) in 2009. Assoc. Prof Michael has been the Principal Investigator
(institutional/national) and the principal designer/co-designer for several
oncology trials. He has significant research interests/expertise in combined
modality therapies for GI malignancies including NETs and supervising
post-graduate PhD students in translational and clinical studies both in
GI and NET oncology.
He co-chairs the PeterMac
Neuroendocrine Unit- with a national/international referral base and helped
establish the first national NET Clinic at his institution and the development
of post-graduate training courses in this area. The Neuroendocrine Unit is
currently applying for European Neuroendocrine Tumour Society Centre of Excellence-
the first such centre to be located outside Europe.
His research work has generated
over 7 million dollars in competitive grant funding and 4 million dollars from
industry. He has over 130 publications including high impact peer-reviewed
articles, book chapters and reviews, with multiple presentations at
local/international conferences and has authored/co-authored over 120
conference abstracts. He has given over 75 invited presentations in
local/international forums. Assoc Prof Michael has been a reviewer for numerous
international oncology journals and external reviewer for several local and
international oncology funding bodies.
Prof Halfdan Sorbye
Professor and Head of NET and GI
section at Department of Oncology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen,
Norway. He has a major research focus on Gastroenteropancreatic (GEP)
Neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC), Neuroendocrine Tumors (NET) and metastatic
colorectal cancer and also 100 peer review publications, 3330
citations. The landmark study Nordic NEC in 2013 showed for the first time
that the GEP WHO G3 group was a very heterogeneous group both concerning
prognosis and with regard to response to chemotherapy. He is also a member of
the ENETS advisory board, a faculty member for Endocrine Tumors and
Gastro-Intestinal Tumors for ESMO (European Society of Medical Oncology) and
executive Board for Nordic Neuroendocrine Tumor Group.
His most relevant publications:
The NORDIC NEC study. Ann Oncol
2013, 24: 152-160. Gastroenteropancreatic high-grade neuroendocrine
carcinoma. Cancer 2014, 120: 2814-23, High-grade gastroenteropancreatic
neuroendocrine carcinoma. UpToDate, 2018, Unmet needs in high-grade GEP
neuroendocrine neoplasms (WHO G3). Neuroendocrinology 2018.
Dr Erin Kennedy
Erin is an accredited
practicing dietitian with an interest in the nutritional assessment and
management of patients with neuroendocrine tumours. She has worked as a
clinical dietitian for 10 years, and specialised in the nutritional management
of patients diagnosed with upper gastrointestinal cancer and NETs. Erin is working
as a senior dietitian within the NET and Upper Gastrointestinal Unit at Peter
MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, and regularly manages patients attending
the multidisciplinary NET clinic. She has experience in teaching and clinical
research, and is currently completing her PhD at the University of Melbourne,
researching the topic of nutritional complications and quality of life amongst
patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours. In addition
to her work Erin has assisted with nutrition education sessions for local and
interstate NET patient support groups, and recently collaborated with the
Unicorn Foundation to create an evidence-based educational booklet for NET
patients titled ‘Nutrition and NETs’.
Other speakers include:
Prof Dermot O'Toole
Dr Grace Kong
Alex Murray
Speakers from Unicorn Foundation:
Simone Leyden, Co-founder and CEO
Kate Wakelin, NET Nurse
Meredith Cummins, Project Officer NSW
