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EORTC symposium at ICTR-PHE in Geneva highlights cancer biology and optimal radiotherapy delivery

Cancer biology and optimal radiotherapy delivery are intricately related, and to highlight this point, the EORTC is hosting a symposium at ICTR-PHE 2014 (International Conference on Translational Research in Radio-Oncology and Physics for Health) to discuss the myriad factors to consider when administering optimal radiotherapy. ICTR-PHE 2014, a highly regarded conference uniting the fields of physics, biology, and medicine to seek improvements in healthcare, will be held 10 – 14 February 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The EORTC Symposium will be co-Chaired by Prof. Philippe Maingon of the Centre Georges-Francois-Leclerc in Dijon and Chair of the EORTC Radiation Oncology Group and Dr. Sofia Rivera of the Institut Gustav Roussy in Villejuif.

Opening the EORTC Symposium at ICTR-PHE 2014, Dr. Emad Shash EORTC Clinical Research Physician, will outline the new EORTC scientific strategy. His talk will focus on the need for new forms of partnership to ensure that patients gain access to improved therapies, the need for an integrated model of clinical cancer research to optimize research and development, and the efforts being done by the EORTC in this arena.

In addition to co-Chairing this session, Dr. Maingon will also give a perspective on the aims and strategy of the EORTC Radiation Oncology Group alongside a look at the Group’s considerable achievements, over 30 years of experience with radiotherapy quality assurance (RTQA), in improving radiotherapy for the benefit of patients with cancer.

A new initiative, the EORTC’s STAR: Synergy of Targeted Agents and Radiotherapy, will then be introduced by Dr. Conchita Vens of The Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek Ziekenhuis and symposium co-Chair Dr. Rivera. STAR is a unique quality controlled platform for integrated and multidisciplinary development of anticancer agents with radiotherapy. It comprises a well-established network of radiotherapy centers in Europe with online digital and validated central review facility for RTQA and established risk based and proportionate QA programs. It supports collaboration between industry and academia from preclinical stages to registration files. STAR fully supports drug development on the backbone of radiotherapy. Drs. Vens and Rivera will present the challenges and opportunities in drug plus radiotherapy combinations, and how STAR can plan facilitate these studies.

The stage having been set, Dr. Vincent Gregoire of the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc and EORTC Vice President will then provide an example of an integrated model, the EORTC DAHANCA-1219 trial, which sets out to see if an hypoxic cell sensitizer further increases the loco-regional efficacy of combined chemo-radiotherapy and if a 15-gene signature for hypoxia can select those patients that benefit from this association.

John Bean, PhD
EORTC, Medical Science Writer

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