Dear colleagues, members and partners,
What a great year it has been so far. It was a real pleasure seeing the community come together once more on the occasion of the SIOP Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Based on the incredible sessions, presentations and attendance, it is clear that the paediatric oncology community is stronger than ever and that the pandemic has not stopped science, nor progress, in the field of paediatric cancers.
We now look forward to seeing many of you at the Annual Meeting that will be taking place on 8-12 May 2023 in Valencia, Spain. Make sure you save the date.
We are also very excited about the upcoming launch of SIOP Europe’ official journal.
With so many important ongoing projects, and more on the horizon, SIOP Europe continues to strive to meet the seven objectives of the Strategic Plan for 2021-2026, which include: (1) Addressing inequalities in diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care across Europe; (2) Developing new, safer and more effective therapies; (3) Addressing specific needs of teenagers and young adults with cancer; (4) Fostering increased knowledge of tumour biology; (5) Addressing the consequences of cancer treatment and improving quality of life of survivors; (6) Understanding the causes of paediatric cancers; and, (7) Implementing Big Data and Artificial Intelligence research and innovation to the benefit of children and young people with cancer.
With no further ado, I invite you to read this edition of the newsletter to find out more.
New Publication Launch - EJC:PO
EJC Paediatric Oncology is a new international, peer reviewed, online-only Gold Open Access journal and the Official Journal of SIOP Europe. The journal is a companion title to the highly respected European Journal of Cancer.
This journal will focus on all aspects related to paediatric oncology and we are currently soliciting submissions, special issue suggestions and commentaries on topics such as epidemiology, radiology, pathology and genomics, haemato-oncology, solid tumours, renal tumours, liver tumours, neuro-oncology, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, immunotherapy, stem cell transplantation, early clinical trials, late effects, toxicity and supportive care, AYA, psycho-oncology, regulatory science, tumour pre-disposition, and more.
We strongly encourage the community to submit papers now and to help spread the news.
4th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Oncology
The 4th Annual Meeting of SIOP Europe will take place on 8-12 May 2023 in Valencia, Spain.
This meeting aims to bring together the diverse stakeholders involved in facing key issues for children and adolescents with cancer. The successful partnership with Childhood Cancer International (CCI) Europe, with the National Paediatric Haematology Oncology Societies (NAPHOS) and with the European Clinical Trial Groups (ECTGs) ensures the excellent representation and participation of childhood cancer professionals, parents and survivors and provides exceptional possibilities for collaboration across all stakeholders within the paediatric oncology community.
For more information about the event, please visit: https://siopeurope.eu/
Updates on Educational Activities
In May, we announced the first modules of the new SIOP Europe Course in Paediatric Oncology. Building upon the success of these Modules, the SIOP Europe Educational Committee is organising two new courses for 2023: “AYA” in collaboration with the SIOPE AYA Committee and “Statistics” in collaboration with I-BFM-SG and CCRI. Stay tuned for more information on these courses in the coming months.
There are many interesting educational webinars currently happening, such as ESO e-Learning, Young SIOPE and ERN PaedCan Interactive Webinar Series on Most Challenging cases in Paediatric Oncology, ESCP Webinars, and CEDAR Webinars. Events are taking place regularly so we encourage you to follow us on social media to make sure you do not miss these learning opportunities.
Last but not least, SIOP Europe, in partnership with ACCELERATE and other project partners, continues to participate in ALLADIN, and the European Network for TYA with Cancer (ENTYAC) is growing in strength and interest with over 30 AYA-focussed Non-Governmental Organisations and charities.
Updates on Working Groups
We are happy to announce that the Essential Medicines Project, involving many Young SIOPE members and the ECTGs, will soon be published in the Lancet Oncology.
The project aims on the one hand to provide an updated evidence-based reference list of essential medicines for all paediatric cancer diseases that should always be accessible to children and adolescents who require them across Europe, and to feed biannually into revisions of the WHO Model of the Essential Medicines List for Children (EMLc) and on the other hand to initiate a dialogue with Health Technology Assessment (HTA) bodies regarding the evaluation of newly approved expensive anti-cancer medicines for children and adolescents. Other activities are in the works, so to find out more please take a look at the relevant news coming from the various SIOPE Working Groups (Young SIOPE, AYA Committee, Radiation Oncology, Host Genome, Nursing, Palliative Care, Psychosocial).
OncoPolicy News
We extend our deepest gratitude once more to the European Parliament for lighting up in gold during Gold September, to help raise awareness of childhood cancer. We also thank our childhood cancer champions. This year, 56 MEPs from 22 countries came to lend their support on 6 September by taking photos with our frame and actively shared important messages on social media.
The SIOPE-MAC webinar on “Championing the importance of the Paediatric Regulation in the future revision of EU pharmaceutical legislation” was held on 29 September and gathered over 160 participants. The event recording is available here and the news release here.
Last, but definitely not least, a few words are obligatory to remind the enduring conflict on the Ukraine ground affecting children with cancer and blood disorders and the international paediatric oncology community response. In particular the SAFER Ukraine initiative (Supporting Action for Emergency Responses in Ukraine) was timely started and continued to deploy support in facilitating the safe evacuation of children with cancer and their families to continue or resume appropriate medical care abroad. To facilitate international patient referral, SAFER Ukraine partnered with hospitals and foundations organised in a number of networks including, among the others, the Polish Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, SIOP, SIOP Europe, CCI and CCI Europe. Between February and May, SAFER Ukraine registered more than 1000 Ukrainian children with cancer or blood disorders from all regions of Ukraine requesting evacuation for medical care. As of May 19th, over 900 patients had safely arrived at referral hospitals abroad. While the future needs of Ukrainian children with cancer and blood disorders remain unsure, all the protagonists in this charity run, thus including SIOPE, remain fully committed to supporting access to high-quality medical care for these patients, in Ukraine as well as out of it.
As always, we hope you will enjoy reading the latest updates from SIOP Europe.
Stay tuned with SIOPE, best wishes to all of you.
Prof Carmelo Rizzari
SIOP Europe President