In order to support NOTCH project leads to present their work on the national or international stage, we are delighted to offer a single educational grant of up to £500 to help with conference fees and travel costs.
Our latest winner, Dr Karen Mactier describes her experience of presenting NOTCH's TOURISM project at the British Sarcoma Group's annual conference.
Many congratulations to her!
'NOTCH's TOURISM project (Treatment Outcomes in UteRIne SarcoMa) has been running since 2021. I was delighted to be invited to present our initial results as an oral presentation at the British Sarcoma Group Annual Conference between 22nd and 23rd March 2023 in Newport.
It was a rather damp couple of days of Welsh spring weather, but the daffodils were in full bloom and the delegates from across the country and around the globe were out in force. The sessions were varied and invoked lively discussion. The meeting was very multidisciplinary in nature and I particularly enjoyed hearing about the advances in surgical techniques and reconstruction as well as the contribution next gen sequencing is making to treatment personalisation in North America. The 'hard science' was nicely balanced by the patient advocacy session on the first afternoon, which discussed holistic care for people unlucky to be diagnosed with these rare and debilitating tumours.
My turn to present came on the second day. The TOURISM team have been collecting retrospective information on the management of uterine sarcomas from a 10 year period. Uterine sarcomas are comparatively rare (5% of uterine malignancies) but account for disproportionately more uterine cancer deaths. Best management approach can be uncertain due to the lack of high quality trial evidence and patients often fall between the care of the gynaecology and sarcoma teams. Our data collection is not yet complete but initial analysis of the diagnostic data shows expected survival trends for tumour stage and histology for example. There is also an interesting unexpected trend that stage IV patients were more likely to have surgery than non-surgical (chemotherapy or radiotherapy management).
I am very grateful to the NOTCH team for their support in attending this conference. It was great to further my knowledge of sarcoma and also meet colleagues from across the UK.'
-Dr Karen Mactier, June 2023