OGOS

Consultant surgeons Sheraz Markar and Richard Owen spent a year planning for last Thursday's inaugural Oxford Gastro-Oesophageal Cancer Symposium (OGOS), hosted at St Catherine's College in Oxford. The Great and the Good from the world of gastric cancer research, oncology and surgery were all there, mustering about 120 leading clinicians and scientists, sharing their innovations and quite literally cutting edge work.

Sheraz in the hot seat

With 19 presentations packed throughout the day, it was an intense cascade of some rather gruelling video clips of surgical techniques, diagnostic research, exciting innovations enhancing the effectiveness of chemotherapy, and extremely technical (mind boggling!) developments across various immunotherapy led trials.

Immunotherapy at work

We, OOSO, were invited to conclude the day by taking the 19th slot ! with our overview of the work they are doing and what it means for patients, old and new and yet undiagnosed. It was simply an incredible day, listening to the latest developments underway across the UK and Europe; it was hard not to feel buoyed up by all the various positive prospects for earlier diagnosis, more effective therapies and vastly enhanced and less invasive surgical techniques.

Anne-Margrethe Phillips and I gave a joint 30 minute presentation telling the audience about the role of OOSO, our close working relationship with clinicians, and how important it is for patients to have access to emotional and practical support from our community of former patients. Reflecting on the day, we concluded that all their work collectively and clearly puts us on the cusp of a truly dramatic increase in survival rates, and of course we thanked everyone in the room, on behalf of patients and their families, for their dedication and life's work towards saving the lives of thousands of people now and in the future.  

Soon the organisers of OGOS will post the various presentations and live recordings online, and in our next newsletter we'll let you know where to access them, with our own summary of some of the more interesting presentations.

Still Frosty?

On Tuesday we had another very successful and enjoyable café lunch at Frosts Garden Centre in Woburn Sands. 14 of us met and chatted for over two hours, enjoying a bit of light banter and a decent lunch. Our next three café catch ups will be:

• Tuesday 16th May, 12:30pm:  Dobbies Garden Centre, Swindon, SN2 7SE
• Monday 12th June, 12:30pm:  Waterperry Gardens, Oxford, OX33 1LA
• Monday 10th July, 12:30pm: Bicester Garden Centre, Bicester, OX25 2NY

Top Tippet

At the cafe catch up, it was inspiring talking with Kathryn who's not long after her surgery, getting back on her bike in the gym spinning her wheels! Recovery isn't easy and certainly takes time, but a routine of gentle daily exercise, however brief, will definitely help speed things up and lessen the risk of certain complications.

Zoomin' in

We hope you will join us for our next and upcoming zoom session on Tuesday 2nd May at 7pm. Subject to on-call duties, Consultant surgeon Richard Owen has kindly offered to give us a masterclass in understanding CT and PET CT scans, show us what the scans look like and how they help us beat the odds.

If you're not already signed up to our zoom sessions drop me a line here and I'll add you to our list. As usual, the invite/link will be emailed to attendees a week ahead of the meeting.

After the 2nd May session, our next two Zoom meetings will take place on:

• Tuesday 13th June at 7pm
• Tuesday 25th July at 7pm