Every year, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) holds its Annual Meeting conference in the USA. The EHE Foundation’s Interim Executive Director and Director of Research, Denise Robinson, attended this year’s event, representing the epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE) global patients community at the 2024 event in Chicago, Illinois, where nearly 40,000 global oncology professionals convened. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), is one of the world’s leading organizations for oncology, bringing together advocates, healthcare providers, and related professionals to accelerate research and empower everyone to conquer cancer.
Many clinicians, advocates, and drug developers took the time to meet and discuss challenges and opportunities relevant to The EHE Foundation’s mission. Meetings like this are an important part of what The EHE Group does, and why the EHE Group make it a priority to attend and advocate for EHE each year.
The Sarcoma Poster Session is also excellent opportunity to learn about sarcoma research across all its sub-types. This year no EHE-specific posters were presented, however, Denise took the time to talk with expert sarcoma oncologists during the session to learn about research around the world.
This year Denise met with:
- Wagner, who is experienced in treating EHE, and is working with SARC and The EHE Foundation to bring another potential treatment to clinical trial. We look forward to sharing more on this opportunity soon;
- Tom Chen, National Taiwan University Hospital, who has generously given time to EHE and will be joining our community more formally as one of the newest members of The EHE Foundation’s Advisory Board;
- Melissa Burgess, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, which has been a reference center for EHE patients for several years. Dr. Burgess investigates immunotherapy for advanced sarcomas and has actively supported our EHE educational efforts;
- Andrea Vanzulli, from the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Dei Tumori, who is a rising star in diagnostic and interventional radiology. Denise recently met Dr. Vanzulli through work in the PUSH Consortium and had the opportunity to learn more about his recent research on radiologic response in solid tumors; and
- Greg Cote, MD, PhD, from Mass General Cancer Center, who as an expert clinician-scientist working to advance EHE research while providing expert care for EHE patients. Dr. Cote is active in early-phase clinical trials studying novel therapies for EHE treatment, and it was great to have the opportunity to talk with him about recent developments in clinical trials.
Dr. Stacchiotti and many other oncologists from around the world were also at ASCO, advancing the cause for sarcomas, and promoting the PUSH Platform, a platform designed to maximize knowledge gained from every ultra-rare sarcoma patient by harnessing data from advocates’ registries, clinical registries, prospective and other types of studies (See earlier post on this Blog about PUSH)