International Insight

Online Exclusive – February 22, 2010

By Best of ASCO Lebanon 2009 Planning Committee Members:
Khaled M. Ibrahim, MD
Joseph Kattan, MD
Ali I. Shamseddine, MD
Nagi S. El Saghir, MD
Mohamad Yassine, MD

The Lebanese Society of Medical Oncology (LSMO) organized its fourth annual Best of ASCO meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, where regional oncology professionals accessed practice-changing science presented at the 2009 ASCO Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

The meeting took place July 10-11 and was organized with the support of H.E. General Michel Sleiman, President of Lebanon. Following opening ceremony speeches by George Aftimos, MD, President of the Lebanese Order of Physicians, and Antoine Karam, Minister of the Environment, the Best of ASCO Meeting Chairs outlined presentations given during the Annual Meeting. They emphasized the importance of sharing new, original research to those unable to attend the Annual Meeting, and to those who did attend and wanted to review and discuss this new data with experts in a smaller forum.

Topics highlighted throughout the meeting included the role of PARP inhibitors in BRCA triple negative breast cancer, antiangiogenesis in colon cancer, frequency of Ca125 determination in ovarian cancer, anti-HER2 therapy in gastric cancer, refinement of chemotherapy and targeted therapy in lung cancer, and overall trends for individualized therapy in all cancers.

Best of ASCO Lebanon attendees were noted for sharing how sessions were animated with discussions about new research, trials, and practice-changing presentations. Furthermore, attending physicians, fellows, residents, pharmacists, and nurses were noted as being enthusiastic in wanting to learn, discuss, and connect with their peers at the meeting.