Young SIOG Newsletter 3

Welcome to our Young SIOG Governance!

It was a pleasure to meet new and old Young SIOG members during our meeting of 4/29. We look forward to our next Young SIOG Forum Call. Please look at your inbox for a poll regarding your availabilities for the meeting. Once a date/time has been selected, a calendar invite will be sent to you to attend!

Aims

As an interest group within SIOG our overarching aims are:

To establish a collaborative network of young researchers and clinicians
To facilitate mentorship of young researchers by more experienced investigators in the field
To promote education and advocate for geriatric oncology in our institutions and countries

Our current initiatives include:

YSIOG publications – (YSIOG Lead: Dr. Jessica Krok-Schoen)
YSIOG virtual forum (3-monthly)
YSIOG Newsletter (3-monthly) - (YSIOG Lead: Dr. Sukeshi Patel Arora)
YSIOG on social media
YSIOG educational webinars - (YSIOG Lead: Dr. Fabio Gomes)
YSIOG online blog - (YSIOG Lead: Dr. Janine Capobiango Martins)
YSIOG Mentor/buddy program - (YSIOG Lead: Dr. Gabor Liposits)
YSIOG Collaborations with societies (YSIOG Lead: Dr. Nina Neuendorff)

You can connect and collaborate with the group in any of these activities through several platforms:

Meet the Members

Sukeshi Patel Arora, MD (USA) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology at the Mays Cancer Center (MCC) at the University of Texas Health San Antonio (UT Health SA), USA. She is the Leader of the Gastrointestinal (GI) Malignancies program and Geriatric Oncology program at Mays Cancer Center. She is a clinical investigator and medical oncologist with a focus on gastrointestinal malignancies, especially hepatobiliary cancers. She is interested in drug development in older adults with GI cancers.

Her academic training is in medical oncology, and when she joined faculty at UT Health SA in 2014, she was selected for a career development award (National Institutes of Aging) focused on the effect of cancer therapeutics on aging outcomes with patients with colon cancer. This launched her interest in geriatric oncology.

In 2017, she completed SIOG advanced course in Geriatric Oncology course in Treviso, Italy. Based on her experience there, she started the Geriatric Oncology Program at UT Health SA, which focused on G8 screening program for all older adults with cancer. Further, through the Cancer Aging and Research Group as well as SIOG, she connected with Dr. Efrat Dotan, who serves as her mentor in GI geriatric oncology. She continues to collaborate with Young SIOG and CARG members in GI geriatric oncology research and hopes to continue to build the clinical and research programs at UT Health SA for years to come.

SIOG Past Events

The SIOG NAH Interest Group organised along with the Young SIOG Interest Group a joint webinar on “Immunotherapy toxicity and steroids use in older cancer patients” on June 22^nd. Thank you for joining us. For those who missed it, please note that the recording is available on the SIOG Website. You can watch the other SIOG NAH webinars on the SIOG website.

SIOG 2021 Webinar Series – “The impact of COVID-19 on ageing cancer patients” was on June 24^th. This event took place as a LinkedIn Live discussion with healthcare thinkers, collaborators and implementors to assess key learnings around continuity of care and how we can adapt to future patient needs. For those who missed it, please note that the recording is available on the SIOG Website.

SIOG Upcoming Events

SIOG 2021 Virtual Annual Conference – November 4-5, 2021

Submit your abstracts - Deadline: August 31, 2021

Here are a few highlights of the SIOG 2021 Virtual Annual Conference you will receive as part of your registration:

Educational and informative virtual workshops and sessions with a variety of scientifically engaging discussions
Technology session on the use of technology to collect data relevant to older adults with cancer
Virtual networking with your peers, and SIOG leadership
General sessions with important updates from the SIOG Governance
Networking lounge to connect with friends and meet new friends

Geriatric Assessment Workshop at SIOG 2021 Virtual Annual Conference

The workshop will be held on November 4 (7:30pm-8:30pm CET) after the scientific programme. It will be priced at 35 Euros per workshop. There will be three parallel sessions, one hour each (see below). Seats are limited and will be available on a first come – first served basis. More info

GA Workshop 1

Geriatric screening tools

Physical Performance Batteries

Functional status

GA Workshop 2

Chemotherapy toxicity calculators

Medications, polypharmacy & comorbidity

Life expectancy calculators

GA Workshop 3

Cognitive assessments

Psychological health

Social support

Nutritional status

SIOG 2021 Advanced Course – Treviso, Italy (December 15-18, 2021)

Applications for this course are already closed, but applications for the 2022 course will open in late 2021 / early 2022.

Highlights

Updated recommendations regarding the management of older patients with breast cancer: a joint paper from the European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists (EUSOMA) and the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG) (read here)
Priorities for the global advancement of care for older adults with cancer: an update of the International Society of Geriatric Oncology Priorities Initiative (read here)
Bridging the Age Gap in breast cancer: Impact of chemotherapy on quality of life in older women with early breast cancer (read here)
Efficacy and Safety of First-line Single-Agent Carboplatin vs Carboplatin Plus Paclitaxel for Vulnerable Older Adult Women With Ovarian Cancer- A GINECO/GCIG Randomized Clinical Trial (read here)
Preoperative frailty assessment with the Robinson Frailty Score, Edmonton Frail Scale, and G8 and adverse postoperative outcomes in older surgical patients with cancer (read here)
Predictors of Unplanned Hospitalizations Among Older Adults Receiving Cancer Chemotherapy (read here)
Efficacy of Reduced-Intensity Chemotherapy With Oxaliplatin and Capecitabine on Quality of Life and Cancer Control Among Older and Frail Patients With Advanced Gastroesophageal Cancer - The GO2 Phase 3 Randomized Clinical Trial (read here)
Expanding Beyond Maximum Grade: Chemotherapy Toxicity over Time by Age and Performance Status in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in CALGB 9730 (Alliance A151729) (read here)

YSIOG Publications

The Young SIOG group continues the work to develop and publish collaborative papers across several topics within geriatric oncology.

Our ongoing YSIOG manuscripts are:

Targeted therapy in non-small cell lung cancer – led by Konstantinos Christofyllakis
Epigenetics/Inflammation – led by Melissa Loh/Nikesha Gilmore
Surgical oncology – led by Lisa Cooper
Gastric-gastroesophageal cancers – led by Mark Baxter (in review)
Triple negative breast cancer – led by Wendy Chan
Geriatric workshop topics from SIOG 2020 conference – led by Young SIOG/NAH session leads from 2020 conference
ASCO 2021 – led by Ishwaria Subbiah
ESMO GI World Congress 2021 – led by Gabor Liposits

We look forward to seeing these YSIOG publications soon:

COVID-19 vaccines in older adults with cancer: a Young International Society of Geriatric Oncology perspective (read here)

Several other papers have been published by the group (read here )

Free educational resources on LinkedIn

We love staying in touch and sharing our free educational resources with our members. Given the success and growing demand of live webinars this past year, we want to ensure that the SIOG Faculty continues to deliver quality educational materials and guidance to health professionals dedicated for the care of older patients with cancer. Please join us on LinkedIn and help us widen our reach in providing free educational resources. Don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn for more updates.

Opportunities

Find new collaborations

The Young SIOG continues to promote and disseminate a database of members enlisting their clinical and research interests. You can find colleagues to collaborate and also add/change your details directly here. Also, we will use this to send invitations that match your interests.

Write and raise awareness

If you are interested in contributing to our upcoming YSIOG educational webinars and YSIOG blog or if you are interested in leading or collaborating on scientific paper writing under the supervision of senior SIOG members in the field of geriatric oncology, please contact Melissa Loh ([email protected]).

Showcase your work and get peer support

If you would like to be featured in the ‘meet the member’ or showcase your research in the ‘research highlight’ section, please contact Fabio Gomes ([email protected]).

If you wish to brainstorm an idea or a project with other YSIOG members and some senior mentors use our online YSIOG Forum and please contact Melissa Loh ([email protected]).

Stay safe and stay in touch!