PAST BLOG POSTS
In the past EUOS ran a blog detailing some of the news from the society and beyond. Whilst we will be moving to the magazine, the blog posts are here for you if you wish to explore and find out what the society has been up to.
Oncology Conferences
Saturday 3rd June 2017
Our Vice President, Claire Pettinger, has been busy attending two oncology conferences...the BONUS conference and the SPCN conference. She summarises these excellent conferences below:
​
​
1. BONUS
Conference at King’s College London on Saturday the 4th February
BONUS is a student-led collaboration across UK medical schools that aims to connect and inspire both students already interested in oncology as a specialty and those with a more general interest in cancer. The day started with an introduction from the societies two vice presidents, as the president of BONUS is currently on his elective in Japan. The morning saw six short talks covering everything from surgical oncology to a brief history of the subject. A personal highlight was the lecture entitled “Serendipity in Cancer Research”. It’s orator, Professor Gordon McVie, made a convincing case that not only was his career in oncology and cancer research fascinating, but its future looked only better. A great turnout from medical schools up and down the country, as well as from Australia meant there was no shortage of conversation to be had.
Lunch was followed by tutorials/workshops that we were able to select from a list beforehand. Having chosen CV, palliative care and bisphosphonate appraisal myself I can only vouch for these. Dr. Faye Gishen delivered the workshop on palliative care which was not only insightful but also rather powerful. She effortlessly engaged a room full of strangers to each other in conversation about death and dying, which we cannot deny is of huge importance in medicine to learn from the start how to go about this. The CV workshop was a more general career advice workshop which included many handy hints of advice (watch this space). If I went to the BONUS conference this morning with any doubts about Oncology they were soon forgotten. Oncology clearly is a career path with great flexibility, variation, meaning and interest. I can only hope those I met today are the colleagues of my tomorrow.​
BONUS will be holding their annual AGM soon and encourage participation nationwide. Get in touch if you would like to consider being a part of BONUS. https://www.bonus-oncology.co.uk/
​
​
2. SCPN
Held just two days after World Cancer Day, the Scottish Cancer Prevention Network held a conference at the Merchant’s Hall in Edinburgh on Monday the 6th February 2017. A fantastic turnout from a multitude of disciplines were present, with the additional bonus of 20 students, who attended for free in accordance with the new SCPN student charter (more to follow).
The day began with a rousing speech from the co-coordinator Professor Annie Anderson, who, as she is rather infamous for, repeatedly got the whole room standing…
...and talked much of the risks obesity and dietary choices had on the burden of cancer prevalence here in the UK. Other speakers continued in this league, though other lifestyle choices such as tobacco were included, obesity and diet being the primary focus of cancer prevention in this conference. It was justified as declining tobacco rates and the commonly accepted knowledge that tobacco causes cancer meant that obesity has taken a backseat.
Some key statistics that stood out:
-
4 in 10 cancers preventable by lifestyle choice
-
Obesity and dietary choices 2nd biggest influence of cancer risk following tobacco.
The morning talks were inevitably followed an extremely wholesome lunch. Here the students began their meeting to discuss the future of the SCPN student charter which largely involves widening participation, recruitment and promoting healthy lifestyle choices and cancer prevention from an early stage in life. The case made for prevention can be summarised by what I thought the most powerful quote of the day: “If there was a drug that reduced bowel cancer risk by 45% (reduced by 19,000 cases a year) with no side effects and decreased risk of heart disease and diabetes… what would we do?”
​
Subscription to the SCPN newsletter and attendendance at conferences is completely free as part of the SCPN student charter. Please contact us if you wish to join or ask more about the charter, or, request to join the conversation on Facebook via this link:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1520745821285173/
EUOS Supports Medics' Reveal
Friday 11th November 2016
​
EUOS Committee member Susannah Houston is part of Medics' Reveal. She and fellow colleagues recently visited the Teenage Cancer Trust at the Western General Hospital.
"This morning, the coordinators of this year's Reveal, Susannah, Hannah and Mhairi, got a tour of the Teenage Cancer Trust unit at the WGH, which opened in 2013.It is for 16-24 year olds and is kitted out with single bedrooms, a day patient unit and a social hub containing a tv, Xbox, football table, games, snacks and much more. The best thing about it is how tailored it is to the needs of any normal teenager - bright modern decor, a monthly Dominos pizza night and no disturbance before 10am!
The visit really hit home with us as it reinforced what the Medics' Reveal is all about. The money we raise from the show helps TCT build things like this specialist unit, in which young people who have been diagnosed with cancer have a sense of normality remaining in their lives. It is important to remember that whilst the show is so much fun to be a part of, the main motivation of its success lies with how much money we can raise for this very amazing, and very deserving charity!"Find out more at: Medics' Reveal Facebook page
Derrick Ng Presents at the 10th International Cancer Conference
Sunday 30th October 2016
Derrick Ng, current 2nd year Edinburgh medical student, presented his summer project data at the 10th International Cancer Conference at Trinity College Dublin (​http://www.cancerconference.ie/)
Derrick self-learned the complex statistical programme R and performed univariate analysis to assess predictors for chemotherapy toxicity in breast cancer patients. He obtained a summer vacation scholarship through Medical Research Scotland and was supervised by Prof. Peter Hall (Profile)
​"In an era of personalised care, routinely collected chemotherapy toxicity data has the potential to help us identify which patients are at increased risk of toxicity."
Congratulations Derrick!
Nicola Murray Foundation Centre for Ovarian Cancer Research Launch
Monday 20th June 2016
The Nicola Murray Foundation was founded following the untimely death of Nicola Murray in 2010, who sadly carried the HNPCC gene and as a result died of ovarian cancer just 4 months following her diagnosis.
Nicola Murray recognised that there was a gap in the research surrounding ovarian cancer of the HNPCC type. Thanks to their heroic efforts those who knew her they have created the opportunity, in conjunction with the University of Edinburgh, to now launch a new centre for studying HNPCC ovarian cancer. The hereditary ovarian cancer and HNPCC is the primary focus of research in the new centre.
Professor Charlie Gourlay made a speech in which he emphasised the University of Edinburgh has been researching ovarian cancer in medical oncology since the 1980’s; those that had been involved since then were present at the event to see this new direction that research was taking.
Some of the money that the NMF has raised will go towards exploring the exciting new discoveries in immunotherapies in cancer and whether their exciting results in other cancers can be applied to ovarian cancer. In particular, it was highlighted that this might be the case due to the unusual nature of the spread of ovarian cancer which some theories suggest may be due to immune mediation. There was then a topical discussion around the ethics of pharmaceutical costs and the biology of cancer, and ovarian cancer and HNPCC was explained very clearly to all.
The launch of the centre was a fantastic event, well attended by a mix of friends, family, clinicians, research students and professors alike. There were infants, school children and adults of all ages present. It gave those who participated in fundraising the opportunity to see where their efforts were benefiting patient outcomes and those involved in research a chance to see how important their work was. Pictured, are Nicky Htun, Claire Pettinger and Ryan Mulholland, who attended the Nicola Murray Foundation Centre for Ovarian Cancer Research Launch.