Transcript: Introduction from the President of ASCO
ASCO 2024: A high-level overview
Dr Ben Gallarda
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In the opening session of this year's ASCO's 60th meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, President, Dr. Lynn Schuchter, started the meeting pointing out that there were over 7,000 abstracts presented and over 44,000 attendees at this year's meeting. She gave the encouraging news that cancer research and patient care, has expanded tremendously and improved tremendously in the last several decades.
For example, patients with stage four melanoma facing less than a year to live in previous years, in the past 10 years, are now seeing overall survival of 10 years and more because of new therapeutic options. She said, quote, "We know we can cure cancer. We now need to cure more cancers." She also put a strong emphasis on the need for palliative care, not merely at the end of life, and in patients for whom there are no remaining therapeutic options, or from the very first diagnosis and start of the treatment course.
She emphasised the need of oncologists, and physicians, and other healthcare professionals, to be trained in palliative care, to be able to provide that comfort to patients in order to smooth their journey, to manage treatment side effects, and to have the best outcomes both related to their cancer, and also to their well-being and mental health.
She concluded her talk, emphasising the impact of artificial intelligence on cancer research and patient care, and about some of the exciting developments in selecting treatments, matching patients to clinical trials, and even helping physicians in their workload by automating repetitive tasks, such as working with electronic health records in order to prevent burnout. Dr. Schuchter concluded her talk, raising a virtual glass to all those lost to cancer, and expressing the hope that there would be fewer of these in the years to come.