Gearing Up For Our 2019 Spring Meeting

It’s going to be an unusually good meeting, with multiple special sessions and speakers. Here’s a partial list of what we have on tap for our members, colleagues, and friends:

•  Plenary I: Lee Ellis, MD, has again secured great speakers for our translational medicine plenary. Peter O’Dwyer, MD, co-chair of ECOG-ACRIN and co-PI for the NCI-MATCH trial, will discuss the evolution of MATCH, plus provide insights into the upcoming COMBO-MATCH and IMMUNO-MATCH. Ignacio Wistuba, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center will discuss ways SWOG members can leverage the NCI CIMAC-CIDC Immune Profiling Network. More to come in the next week or two.

•  Plenary II: For the general plenary, we’ll hear about the future of precision medicine from Razelle Kurzrock, MD, chair of our early therapeutics and rare cancers committee, and a driver of our own DART rare cancers trial. Former group statistician John Crowley, PhD, will offer a memorial tribute to Dr. Charles A. Coltman, Jr., and James Rae, PhD, will celebrate the achievements of our outgoing deputy chair, Anne Schott, MD.

•  Special Symposium: Thanks to a grant from The Hope Foundation for Cancer Research, we’ll host the Immune-Related Adverse Events (IRAE) Symposium organized by active SWOG member Virginia Sun, RN, PhD. The purpose is to foster interdisciplinary, collaborative management and research of IRAEs. All members are welcome, and speakers will include experts in immuno-oncology, cardio-oncology, and oncology advanced nursing.

•   SWOG Latin America Initiative:  There will be more than a dozen SLAI members from Mexico and Central America in attendance, as this visionary SWOG program celebrates its 10th anniversary! Kudos to John Crowley and Alejandro Mohar, MD, (and former SWOG executive officer Manuel Valdivieso, MD) for helping us reach this big milestone.

•  Fun Run and Walk: It’s back. And it’s even better. The event company SF Runs will help us organize our run and walk this year, which starts at 6:00 am on Thursday, April 25. Join us for either a 5K run or a 2.5-mile walk along the Embarcadero, with the start and finish line near the hotel for easy access to your morning meetings. It’s free – just sign up when you register.

And that’s not all. We’ll have our Clinical Trials Training Course, the Oishi Symposium for oncology research professionals, and a kick-off meeting or two for new SWOG trials. Please register for the meeting today – and see you in San Francisco!