Annual Meeting ITOG 2015 – Prof. S. I. Sherman

An extraordinary opportunity, which brought together specialists who have in common the passion for a real improvement in the conditions of patients suffering from thyroid cancer.

The annual meeting brought together thyroid cancer specialists and researchers from both North America and Europe together. I think the first, most important innovation was an expansion of these collaborations to bring scientists and researchers together to share data, to share expertise, insights, to question each other. So, probably the most important outcome is expansion of efforts to work together from both North America and Europe. The second is the growing importance of the genetic determinants of thyroid cancers. Understanding the genetics that contribute to the original mutations and secondary mutations that lead to the development and progression of thyroid cancer, and how knowledge about those mutations can drive and inform our clinical trials. Understanding perhaps better why patients respond or don’t respond to different therapies, why they work and why they don’t work. Another is the challenges of doing clinical trials in both Europe and North America, and some of the difficulties in recruiting patients, in being able to obtain the research specimens, the critical aspects of the designs of studies that we discussed. So this was a fantastic opportunity to bring together people who really share common passion for the improvement of outcomes to the benefit of patients with thyroid cancer.