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SLIDES
& TRANSCRIPTS
Tuesday,
June 18
Introduction
Ernest
C. Borden, MD
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1: |
 DR.
BORDEN: In organizing this meeting, Murray Brennan and I wanted
to bring some of the key points that Dr. von Eschenbach spoke
about last night, the progress and possibilities for curing sarcomas,
and the exciting research progress that occurs. Hopefully, this
progress can lead, coming out of this meeting, to some new partnerships.
I wanted to start with just a couple of introductory further slides
in terms of overview.
The first one is a more detailed version of what was my first
slide yesterday morning. I present this because I think the impact
in the area of sarcomas, it is important that we get our numbers
correct. I would actually like to challenge and have Scott or
Barry Anderson potentially help get these numbers correct.
Dr. von Eschenbach last night talked about 8,200 cases. This is
data from SEER which, as I mentioned yesterday, only involves
seven of the sarcomas. If you add up the individual bars here,
this is about 10,000 cases of sarcoma just from these seven diagnoses.
So, just based upon this SEER data, my own estimate is that we
are probably pushing something close to 15,000 new sarcoma patients
on an annual basis, maybe a little bit short of that. If Scott
and the other NCI people could help us get those numbers correct,
I think it would be really important in terms of impact and moving
the sarcoma field forward and making our case.
TOP
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| Slide
2: |
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 During
the period of 1970 to 1990, when I started in sarcoma research,
there are a number of elements that I would consider significant
areas of progress -- pathological simplification, staging, the introduction
of radiotherapy as a curative modality and adjunct to other modalities,
the progress that many people in this room contributed to with the
identification of doxorubicin and ifosfamide as active drugs, the
surgeon's contribution to functional preservation, and the pediatricians
not only making progress, but setting the model for many of the
rest of us in terms of what could be done with interdisciplinary
collaboration.
TOP
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3: |
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 During
1990 to 2000, one can identify the progress made in the identification
of translocations, the further use of immunohistochemistry, the
imaging modalities, and our refinements in prognosis. During this
period, this has taken place with probably coming more from individual
institutions than through the Cooperative Groups.
Bob Benjamin yesterday characterized the Cooperative Group as a
stepchild. I will disagree with Bob a little bit. I think the Cooperative
Groups -- the infrastructure and the superstructure is there. But
to quote something that we have all heard in the past, "We
have met the enemy." I think many of us fail in terms of bringing
forward enough good ideas to generate continued support for the
Cooperative Group mechanism, which does remain a very powerful possibility
in terms of collaborative studies in the area of pathology and clinical
interventions.
I would hope that one of the things that comes out of this is further
strengthening of our Cooperative Group initiatives for sarcomas,
and real collaboration between the individual Cooperative Groups.
TOP
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| Slide
4: |
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 Finally,
the focus of this meeting has been three major topics -- the molecular
redefinition, improving our primary management, and identifying
targeted therapeutics; and we look forward to hearing from each
of the working groups.
TOP
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| Slide
5: |
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 It
has been said that science comes to life in the laboratories, but
it matures outside. Yesterday we heard many people make the plea
that there are patients out there who need interventions and need
action. You will now be hearing reports in terms of how we can take
the tremendous progress that has come out of laboratories and translate
this into improved outlook for patients with sarcomas.
I will thank everybody in terms of their energies and ideas that
have gone into this meeting, and I thank the organizing committee
for all the ideas that went in, and bringing together such a talented
group of individuals. If you wonder how you got here, you were invited
by the organizing committee. So, you were nominated by somebody
on the organizing committee and more than one person nominated you
for attendance.
If you have enjoyed your time here, please thank whomever you know
on the organizing committee. If you didn't enjoy your time here,
you can blame it on the person on the organizing committee that
you know.
With that, I will call on Sharon Weiss and Jonathan Fletcher to
provide the report from the first of the working groups. TOP
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