Congratulations to our chair Nicolò Battisti for the well-deserved achievement in the recent SIOG board elections having been selected for SIOG President-Elect 2020-2022.
Congratulations to our vice-chair, Melissa Loh who was now elected as the new chair of YSIOG. This means two of our YSIOG members now sit at the SIOG board. Lastly, we will soon be opening applications for the remaining 4 YSIOG governance positions, so get involved by applying or voting!

Nicolò M L Battisti (UK/IT) - chair
Melissa Loh (USA/MY) – vice-chair
Enrique Soto Perez (MX)
Fabio Gomes (UK/PT)
Nina Neuendorff (DE)
Gabor Liposits (DK)

(left-to-right / top-to-bottom)

As an interest group within SIOG, our specific 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 online forum (3-monthly)
• YSIOG newsletter (3-monthly)
• YSIOG on social media
• YSIOG educational webinars (to be launched soon)
• YSIOG blog

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

Fabio Gomes (MD MRes) serves currently as a member of the Young SIOG governance and is a medical oncologist working at the Department of Medical Oncology, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester (United Kingdom).

His areas of interest are lung cancer, drug development, clinical research and onco-geriatrics.

He achieved his medical degree and MD from the NOVA Medical School in Lisbon (Portugal) and completed his training in medical oncology at the University Hospitals of Central Lisbon. He moved to Manchester in 2016 to develop his clinical and research skills. Here he achieved a MRes in Experimental Cancer Medicine and is currently working in the lung cancer team and the patient-centred research team.

He became interested in onco-geriatrics during his specialty training and in 2015 he joined the Visiting Scholars Program at the Moffit Cancer Centre (Florida, USA), learning under Dr Martine Extermann and Dr Lodovico Balducci at the Senior Adult Oncology Program. Whilst in Manchester (UK) he has developed and led several projects in this field, such as: clinical research in immunotherapy for older cancer patients, pathway development for frailty assessment in lung cancer patients, amongst other projects. Currently he is the chief editor of a Springer book entitled “Frailty in senior adult cancer patients” which is in development with close collaboration with many SIOG (and YSIOG) members.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on the logistics of several medical conferences around the world, and SIOG 2020 Annual Conference was no exception and this year took place online on the 1st October 2020. Nonetheless, thanks to the hard work of the Scientific Committee led by Dr Holly Holmes and Professor KL Cheung, the event was well attended by 253 delegates from all over the world and was a resounding success.
The conference kicked in with a short celebration to mark the 20th anniversary of SIOG and a handover between President Prof Hans Wildiers and President-elect Dr Ravindran Kanesvaran.
The scientific programme included a session on the impact of COVID-19 on the management of older adults with cancer reporting the recommendations of the multidisciplinary COVID-19 Working Group; a rapid fire abstract session and an update session covering the most recent data in haematology, medical oncology, geriatrics, radiation oncology and surgical oncology.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a barrier to equal and evidence-based management of cancer in older adults. Under the guidance of Dr Meena Cherian, our Society organised a webinar in collaboration with the World Health Organization on the impact of the pandemic on global health policy for older individuals with cancer featuring a panel including patient advocates, public health leaders, speakers from Governments, Ministries of Health and Institutions around the world.
The webinar was very well received and attended by 329 delegates. The recording of the webinar is available here.

This event will be held virtually on January 12-13, 2021. Register now and enjoy this high-impact learning experience from the comfort of your desk.

NB: the timings will be based on Canberra time zone (GMT +11)

This course will be organised on June 30-July 3, 2021. The admissions for the 2021 edition are now closed. Interested in applying for the 2022 edition, please contact Jennifer Díaz at events@siog.org

At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2020 annual meeting, a total of 4 practice changing randomized clinical trials were presented about the role of geriatric assessments
(Qian et al. (read here); Mohile et al. (read here); Li et al (read here); Soo et al. (read here)

ecancer published recently a special issue entitled “Geriatric Oncology: the time is now”
(read here)

Geriatric Assessment: What are you Waiting for?
Written by SIOG Past President, Stu Lichtman, published in the ASCO Post (read here)

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

We are looking for collaborators for the following papers (contact Melissa Loh if interested – contact at the end):

• Biomarker-guided therapy – led by Konstantinos Christofyllakis
• Epigenetics/Inflammation – led by Melissa Loh/Nikesha Gilmore
• Surgical oncology – led by Lisa Cooper
• ASH annual meeting perspectives – led by Maya Abdallah
• SABCS annual meeting perspectives – led by Mina Sedrak  

Here is an update on what is currently ongoing:

• Radiation oncology mini-review
• Physical function: Joint paper between Young SIOG and NAH
• Multiple myeloma review

Our latest YSIOG publications were:

• led by Nicolò Battisti and Gabor Liposits focused on systemic therapy in older cancer patients. This review highlights the challenges and concerns when treating this population but also the opportunities with newer treatments such as targeted therapies and immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors (read here).
• led by Fabio Gomes focused on the role of immunotherapy in older cancer patients with lung cancer. This is a particularly older population where immunotherapy has a growing role from early to advanced stages and from single-agent to increasingly complex combinations (read here).

Several other papers have been published by the group over the last 2 years <More>

PhD in the Leiden University Medical Centre (Netherlands)
Opportunity for an international candidate (currently not residing in the Netherlands) with a medical or biomedical background. The goal of this project is to determine the levels of immune / inflammatory changes and to study how this relates to well-being and mental health outcome amongst older patients with cancer and other diseases. The PhD candidate will perform both epidemiological analyses and laboratory work. For more information contact Dr Simon Mooijaart or Dr Nienke de Glas.

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.

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.
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.

Stay safe and stay in touch!