Posts by cowic

  28 February 2019 will be the twelfth international Rare Disease Day coordinated by EURORDIS. On and around this day hundreds of patient organisations from countries and regions all over the world will hold awareness-raising activities. The theme for Rare Disease Day 2019 is ‘Bridging health and social care‘. A rare disease, also referred to as an…

EDITORIAL The evolving role of patient advocates in rare cancers: opportunities and challenges Ornella Gonzato and Alessandro GronchiAssociazione Paola for Muskulo-Skeletal Tumors Onlus, Udine, Italy;Department of Surgery, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy The role of Patient Advocates (PAs) has evolved over time. In general, it has expanded ranging from direct support to…

NEW HORIZONS GIST is the most important global annual conference for GIST patient advocates: GIST patient advocates from the global GIST patient community come together, interact with top GIST experts, have access to state‐of‐the‐art medical and scientific information and can exchange best practice in patient advocacy among each other. The 2018 conference took place in…

June 18, 2018, Milan, Italyby Christina Baumgarten, sos-desmoid Germany   On June, 18, 2018 we held our international desmoid meeting in Milan, Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori. It was a fantastic meeting with nearly 40 medical experts and patient advocates from all over the world. After a short welcome introduction from Bernd Kasper and Alessandro Gronchi…

    The University of Milan and ESO European School of Oncology (both associated partners in EURACAN) have launched a programme of postgraduate courses on rare adult solid cancers for clinical oncologists. The course on sarcomas was held from 22 to 26 January 2018 and addresses adult-type soft tissue sarcomas, bone and pediatric sarcomas, GIST…

Our friends at the Chordoma Foundation have recently announced a new funding opportunity aimed at accelerating the development of drug therapies targeting brachyury, a transcription factor that plays a key role in chordoma and other cancers. Issued in partnership with The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, the Therapeutic Innovation Award will be offered in two phases. The first funding phase will…

CTOS, November 2017 During the CTOS (Connective Tissue Oncology Society) 2017 conference in Maui, Hawaii, SPAEN Board member and Chairman of the Dutch sarcoma patient platform Gerard van Oortmerssen gave a presentation on a project aiming at harvesting information from patient discussions on the Internet. Cancer patients, in particular patients with rare cancers, are increasingly…

  In September 2016, the community of patient advocates for sarcomas, GIST and desmoids came together for another successful SPAEN Annual Conference, with Poland being a warm and welcoming host country. We’d like to take the opportunity to thank all those who contributed: our committed patient advocates and experts and our partners from the industry. The…

Desmoid-type fibromatosis (DF) is a rare and locally aggressive monoclonal, fibroblastic proliferation characterized by a variable and often unpredictable clinical course. Currently, there is no established or evidence-based treatment approach available for this disease. Therefore, in 2015 the European Desmoid Working Group published a pdf position paper giving recommendations on the treatment of Desmoids (1.59…

Desmoid-type fibromatosis (DF) is a rare and locally aggressive monoclonal, fibroblastic proliferation characterized by a variable and often unpredictable clinical course. Currently, there is no established or evidence-based treatment approach available for this disease. Therefore, in 2015 the European Desmoid Working Group published a position paper giving recommendations on the treatment of Desmoids. Here, we…