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Activities of EORTC Fellows as of April 2011

Since 1991 the EORTC has conducted a Fellowship Program designed to promote European clinical research by encouraging physicians and scientists from all over the world to stay for up to three years as research fellows at EORTC Headquarters in Brussels. Medical doctors, bio-statisticians, and other scientists are entitled to this fellowship program which is specifically linked to the EORTC Groups’ research program or specific research projects undertaken by EORTC Headquarters. The aim of the fellowship program is to provide training in the methodology of clinical research in cancer clinical trials with the support of EORTC Headquarters staff.

Currently, nine fellows are in residence at EORTC Headquarters and are engaged in various aspects of the EORTC clinical research program.

Gustavo Werutsky, MD, a native of Brazil, has been in residence at EORTC Headquarters since December 2008 where he has developed and implemented the QA Project in the MINDACT trial. In parallel with this effort, Dr. Werutsky participated as a member of the MINDACT-TRANSBIG Executive Committee and in the TRANSBIG Ethical-Legal Committee which has broadened his exposure to the many facets of multinational clinical trials. He has also been involved in the International Male Breast Cancer Registry, a joint effort between the Breast International Group (BIG) and the North American Breast Cancer Groups (NABCG) coordinated by the EORTC. Dr. Werutsky received his medical degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology and was junior staff member and clinical investigator at São Lucas Hospital in Porto Alegre before coming to the EORTC. Support for his fellowship was provided initially by a TRANSBIG traineeship through support by the EORTC Charitable Trust and for the second and third years by the Fonds Cancer. Currently, Gustavo has begun work on projects in Quality Assurance in Surgery and Chemotherapy in clinical trials in collaboration with the EORTC Quality Assurance Committee.

Camilo Moulin, MD, also from Brazil, arrived at EORTC Headquarters in November 2010, and along with Dr. Werutsky is involved in the MINDACT trial quality assurance and quality control program. Dr. Moulin received his medical degree from Federal University of Espírito Santo, Vitória, Brazil. He completed residencies in Internal Medicine at the University of São Paulo and in Medical Oncology at Sírio-Libanês Hospital in São Paulo. He previously held positions as Associate Internist/staff in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of São Paulo and Associate Medical Oncologist/clinical investigator at the Hospital de Câncer de Barretos in São Paulo and was a clinical research fellow on the Breast Adjuvant Study Team in the Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels. Support for Dr Moulin’s fellowship is provided by a TRANSBIG traineeship through support by the EORTC Charitable Trust.

Alysa Fairchild, MD, joined the EORTC in September 2010 as Emmanuel van der Schueren Fellow. The Emmanuel van der Schueren Fellowship, created in 1999 in memory of Professor Emmanuel van der Schueren, aims to promote research on quality assurance in radiotherapy and is supported by the Vlaamse Liga tegen Kanker and the EORTC. Dr. Fairchild comes to us from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where she worked as a Radiation Oncologist. Originally from Vancouver, Alysa received her Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and her medical degree from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. She obtained a postgraduate diploma in Epidemiology and completed her Radiation Oncology training in Calgary and Edmonton. Her current area of research is how quality assurance correlates with clinical outcomes.

Erik Tanis, MD, hails from The Netherlands and has been at EORTC Headquarters since November 2010. Following his graduation from VU Amsterdam, Dr. Tanis worked for one year each in the surgical wards at the Tergooiziekenhuizen in Hilversum and the AMC in Amsterdam. Erik came to the EORTC in order to gain more experience prior to starting his surgical residency. At the EORTC Erik is involved in several translational gastrointestinal colorectal cancer projects, e.g. immunohistochemistry in colorectal cancer and molecular markers in colorectal cancer. In addition, he is involved in the QA in surgery project along with Gustavo Werutsky. Dr. Tanis’ fellowship is supported by the KWF Kankerbestrijding.

Julie Lorent, a biostatistician from France, began her fellowship in October 2010. Under the supervision of Dr. Laurence Collette, Julie will perform the statistical analysis for the PARADAC project, Pooled Analysis of RADiotherapy parameters in phase II and phase III trials in Anal Cancer. Data from nine clinical trials has been pooled for this analysis, and the objective is to assess radiotherapy related parameters affecting the outcome of patients with anal cancer. Dr. Oscar Matzinger, a former Emmanuel van der Schueren Fellow at the EORTC, is the Study Coordinator for PARADAC. Julie obtained her MSc with specialization in mathematical biostatistics engineering from INSA (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées), Toulouse, France, and prior to arriving at EORTC Headquarters was an intern in the Biostatistics Department at the Centre Régional de Lutte contre le Cancer (CRLC) Val d’Aurelle, Montpellier, France. Her fellowship is supported by the EORTC Charitable Trust.

Since December 2010, Zouheir Snouber, MD, a native of Algeria, has been involved in the development of methodologies on cancer clinical trials for the EORTC Brain Tumor Group under the direction of Denis Lacombe, EORTC Director. In 2000, Dr. Snouber obtained his medical degree from the Abou Bakr Belkaïd University of Tlemcen, Algeria, and then specialized in physical therapy focused on neurological diseases (5 years). Zouheir completed a Diplôme d’études spécialisées in biomedical sciences option in neurosciences at the University of Liege, and concurrent with his EORTC fellowship he is pursuing a diploma in pharmaceutical medicine, Pharmed, from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. His fellowship is supported by the Fonds Cancer.

Francisco Bautista, MD, originally from Spain, received his medical degree from the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Albacete in 2004. He completed his residency in pediatrics at the Hospital Universitario La Fe in Valencia in 2009 and thereafter a two year clinical fellowship program in pediatric oncology and hematology at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for children in London. He has been a research fellow at the EORTC for clinical trials conducted by the Children’s Leukemia Group since January 2011. His research project focuses on late effects in long term childhood leukemia survivors. His fellowship is supported through the EORTC Charitable Trust by the Schroeder Foundation Fellowship.

Divine Ewane Ediebah began his fellowship as a biostatistician in the Quality of Life Department in March 2011. A native of Cameroon, he is involved in studies concerning quality of life and patient reported outcomes. Divine obtained his Master of Science (MSc) degree in Applied Statistics in 2006 and his Advanced MSc in Biostatistics in 2007 from Hasselt University, Diepenbeek. His research interests include analysis of quality of life data from clinical trials, longitudinal data, survival data, multivariate data, and categorical data analysis. Mr. Ediebah’s fellowship is supported by a grant from the Pfizer Foundation.

Diego Reis, MD, from Brazil started his fellowship in April 2011. Dr. Reis received his medical degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and completed his residencies in Internal Medicine at the Federal University of Paraná and Clinical Oncology at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute. His efforts will focus on methodology in cancer clinical trials conducted by the EORTC Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma Group, and he will work under the direction of Sandrine Marreaud, Head of the EORTC Medical Department. His fellowship is supported by the Fonds Cancer.

Further information on the Fellowship Program can be found on the EORTC website.

 John Bean and Lily Geyoro

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