The European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society annual conference was this year held in the beautiful city of Barcelona. With over 2000 registered it was the biggest NETs conference so far, with numbers growing year on year.
The post graduate course alone had over 500 registrations up from 150 three years ago, showing the interest in NETs is ever increasing.
Before the conference started the Unicorn Foundation was involved in a three day meeting to put together the strategic plan for the renamed INCA (International Neuroendocrine Cancer Alliance) formally WNCAD (World NET Cancer Awareness Day). It was a fantastic experience to sit with NET patient groups from all parts of the world, all with similar issues, similar goals and a united passion to improve patient outcomes around the world.
The post graduate course covered a variety of topics with experts from around Europe presenting topics such as: the future in Biomarkers for NETs; how to manage gastrointestinal complications in NETs; transaterial embolisation v chemoembolisation: which is better?; chemotherapy v molecular targeted therapy for pancreatic NET.
It was a great opportunity to meet with our Australian specialists and our patients should be reassured that Australia is at the forefront of NET patient care.
Some interesting links:
http://www.enets.org/guidelines_tnm_classifications.html
http://wiki.cancer.org.au/australia/COSA:NETs_guidelines
Thank you to Novartis Australia for providing an unrestricted educational grant to the Unicorn Foundation CEO, Simone Leyden, to attend this year's conference.
