The IV French-Brazilian Oncology Congress was an enormous success!

Over 30 distinguished international guests and 650 physicians attended the meeting.

The leader of BIG (Breast International Group) Martine Piccart spoke about molecular profiling, the changes that will take place in breast cancer treatment, and the use of Herceptin as an adjuvant therapy.

The discussion of clinical cases by means of an interactive system was very productive and exciting. Among those who attended the meeting were Dr. Alain Monnier, one of the most distinguished authorities on the investigational use of Letrozol in breast cancer treatment, and Dr. Fabrice André, who is involved in modeling factors which predict breast cancer.

Dr. Mauricio Magalhães presented his perspective as a breast cancer specialist reviewing clinical cases.

  
We had the pleasure of attending a brilliant lecture on Colorectal Cancer presented by Professor Almery De Gramont, leader of the GERCOR (Group for Study and Research in Oncology). Dr. Roberto Gil and Dr. Paulo Hoff gave a brilliant lecture about management of metastatic disease and used an interactive system to work through challenging clinical cases.

With regards to lung cancer, the leader of IALT (International Adjuvant Lung Trial) Thierry Le Chevalier presented the most updated adjuvant therapies available.

Dr. Jean Charles Soria discussed ERCC1, a predictor of response to cisplatin used in the management of this disease.
The breast cancer conferences had Dr. Moise Namer as one of its speakers. Dr. Namer updated the audience on Peto’s meta-analysis, neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, and the decision trees that are used in selection of adjuvant treatments. Dr. Artur Katz discussed systemic treatment for lobular cancer. The use of hormone therapy was discussed in several conferences by Dr. Alain Monnier and Professor Moise Namer.


New drugs were brilliantly reviewed by Professor Jean Pierre Armand and Dr. Li Ya Ju. Professor Thomas Tursz presented his perspective on the future of global oncology. Representatives of their respective National Cancer Institutes, Dr. Luis Santini, for Brazil, and Thierry Le Chevalier, for France, discussed the strategies being implemented by their institutions.

The “Best of ESMO” session, content officially sanctioned by the European Society and coordinated by Dr. Gilberto Schwartsmann and by Dr. Eduardo Cazap [SLACOM] was a huge success. There were small conferences and presentation of papers at the event, which was held just one month after the ESMO meeting in Istanbul. Professors John Wagstaff and Thomas Tursz were present at the “Best of ESMO” session.

The 2nd French-Brazilian Thoracic Surgery Seminar was directed by Dr. Rui Haddad and was extremely productive. There was close collaboration among the surgeons Philipe Dartvell, from France, and Rodney Landreneau and Ricardo Santos, from the United States, as well as with the Brazilian surgeons, radiotherapists and oncologists.
The 3rd French-Brazilian Radiotherapy Seminar had 10 international celebrated guests including Professor Jean Bourhis, head of the radiotherapy department at the Gustave Roussy Institute; Professor Jean Pierre Gerard, director of the Lacassangne Center in Nice; Dr. Roberto Orecchia, director of the Tumori Institute in Milan; and countless Brazilian radiotherapists who filled the room.

ASCO (American Society of Medical Oncology), which is the largest oncology society in the world, co-sponsored a Joint Symposium with the French-Brazilian Oncology Society about ASCO and ESMO Global Cancer Curriculum (GCC). Speakers included Dr. Enaldo Melo de Lima, President of Brazilian Society of Clinical Oncology (SBOC), Dr. Luiz Santini, Director of Brazil’s National Cancer Institute (INCA) and Dr Eduardo Cazap, President of SLACOM. Dr Martine Piccart, representing ASCO, and Gilberto Schwartsmann representing SFBO, opened the conference, which included a talk by Dr. Fabrice André, who had participated in the elaboration of the GCC. The discussions held after were very insightful. New ideas and interesting suggestions were brought up regarding the implementation of this curriculum in Brazil in Brazilian graduate and post-graduate education.

We ended with the I French-Brazilian Psycho-Oncology Seminar.

This session was presented Dr. Claudia Bigard, who heads the psychological support service for cancer patients at the Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris. She signed her book Vivre Ensemble, which has been translated into Portuguese and shows how to approach a delicate subject such as cancer with relatives and children.