ESO journalists professional development course
at ESMO Congress 2014
Friday 26th September 2014
14:00 Press Centre
Welcome and introductions
A chance for the ESO media team and participating journalists to introduce ourselves and the
professional development programme for the following three days. As you will see from the
attached list, we’ve selected a very varied group of participants. We’re very interested to hear
about the communities you serve and media you work for, and talk about what you are hoping to
get out of your participation.
14.40 Press Centre
Pre-Congress briefing session: Be precise about precision medicine
14:45 What is precision medicine? Giuseppe Curigliano* will talk through the concept behind
precision medicine, and the implications for patients, doctors, researchers and health systems,
followed by 20 mins for Q&A and discussion
15:15 Implications for pathology and diagnostic services. Access to the latest targeted
therapies is of no use without access to the pathology and diagnostic services needed to
determine which patients need which treatments. Keith Kerr* and Rick Baehner* will talk about
the state of the art and how national services will need to evolve, followed by 20 minutes Q & A
and discussion.
15:55
Coffee Break
16:10 Immunotherapy: is it the real thing? Harnessing the body’s own immune system to fight
cancer has been an aspiration for decades, and has been the focus of media hype in recent
months. Olivier Michielin* will talk about what the latest immunotherapies mean for patients and
about their future potential, followed by 20 minutes Q & A and discussion
16:40 Getting the most out of ESMO 2014.

ESMO Congress sessions and press conferences: ESMO’s press officer, Vanessa Pavinato,
will be on hand to help journalists navigate the packed Congress agenda, and highlight sessions
likely to be of interest to lay audiences (see also Sessions of Interest to Reporters). Journalists
may also be interested in attending some of the Patient Track sessions

Interview requests: This could be a valuable opportunity to track down and seek
interviews with oncologists from your own countries. ESMO’s press office won’t fix it up for
you, but Vanessa can give you some pointers on how to identify and locate the people you
want.
This event is organised by the ESO Cancer Media Service in collaboration with ESMO
* Notes on Friday’s speakers
Be precise about precision medicine
Giuseppe Curigliano is Chair of the Division of Early Drug Development,
at the European Institute of Oncology, Milan; a member of the
Scientific Advisory Council of the International Breast Cancer Study
Group (IBCSG), and Chair of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Scientific
Subcommittee for ESMO 2014
Keith Kerr is a consultant pathologist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary,
specialising in lung cancer, and is a member of the metastatic nonsmall-cell lung cancer scientific subcommittee of ESMO 2014
Rick Baehner is the Vice President of Pathology and the Breast Core
Team Lead at Genomic Health, and is responsible for all strategic,
development and medical affairs aspects of the GHI Breast Program.
He is also a faculty member in the Department of Pathology and the
Division of Cytology at the University of California, San Francisco,
where he directed the Hellen Diller Immunohistochemistry Core
Laboratory for 10 years.
Olivier Michielin is Assistant Professor at the Medical Faculty,
University of Lausanne, and Group leader at the Swiss Institute of
Bioinformatics and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research,
Lausanne Branch, and member of the Melanoma Scientific
Subcommittee of ESMO 2014
This event is organised by the ESO Cancer Media Service in collaboration with ESMO
Saturday 27th September 2014
8.15–9.00
Press Centre
ESMO’s Daily Press briefing
12.15–13.00 Press Centre
ESMO’s Press education session
17.00–18.30 Press Centre
17.00 The changing face of clinical trials
Precision medicine (also known variously as personalised, targeted or intelligently designed
medicine) requires a very different approach to developing and testing new drugs. Christian
Dittrich* will explain what has changed and flag up some implications for patients, followed
by 20 minutes Q & A and discussion
17.30 Reporting on new therapies, skills and pitfalls: exercise and discussion
Participants will be given a report on a clinical trial of one of the experimental therapies
highlighted at the Congress, and will be asked to write a short news report. Peter McIntyre
and Anna Wagstaff will facilitate a discussion on avoiding the pitfalls and addressing the
many challenges, from understanding and explaining the statistical information to being clear
about the strength of evidence, being precise about which patients will benefit and how
much, as well as any drawbacks, addressing cost and access issues, addressing conflict of
interest issues, and more – all within tight time constraints.
Participants are free to attend ESMO sessions of their own choosing when there are no
sessions specified.
*Notes on Saturday’s speaker
The changing face of clinical trials
Christian Dittrich is the Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for
Applied Cancer Research–LB Cluster Translational Oncology, at the Centre
for Oncology and Haematology, at the Kaiser Franz Josef-Spital, Vienna,
Austria. He sits on the New Drug Advisory Committee (NDAC) of the
European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC),
and is chair of the Developmental Therapeutics Scientific Subcommittee at
ESMO Congress 2014
This event is organised by the ESO Cancer Media Service in collaboration with ESMO
Sunday 28th September 2014
8.15–9.00
Press Centre
ESMO’s Daily Press briefing
12.15–12.45 Press Centre
ESMO’s Press education session
17.00–18.30 Press Centre
How to interview patients and/or other requested topics
This session is a chance for us all to touch base and discuss topics and issues that have arisen
during the course of the Congress. We can also use it to schedule additional speakers,
depending on the priorities of the group of participants and the availability of relevant
speakers. We could decide, for instance, to invite one of the patient advocates who will be
present at the Congress to address a discussion requested by one of our journalists on how
to interview patients.
Participants are free to attend ESMO sessions of their own choosing when there are no
sessions specified.
This event is organised by the ESO Cancer Media Service in collaboration with ESMO
Monday 29th September 2014
8.15–9.00
Press Centre
ESMO’s Daily Press briefing
16.30–18.30 Press Centre
Post Congress reality check: What will it all mean for patients?
A chance for journalists to quiz representatives from industry, health policy, medical
oncology and patient advocacy about the reality of patient access to state of the art cancer
care in Europe’s overstretched healthcare systems. Speakers will be given 10 minutes each
for an initial presentation, leaving more than 1 hour for questions and discussion.
Facilitator:
Franco Cavalli, chair of European School of Oncology’s Scientific Committee
Speakers:
Cora Sternberg, head of medical oncology at the San Camillo and Forlanini Hospitals in Rome
Jan Geissler, patient advocate
Marek Kania, vice-president for medical affairs at Lilly Oncology
José Martin Moreno, former Director General of Public Health & Chief Medical Officer of
Spain
This event is organised by the ESO Cancer Media Service in collaboration with ESMO
*Notes on speakers
Post-Congress reality check: What does it all mean for patients?
Franco Cavalli is chair of the Scientific Committee of the European School of
Oncology, Coordinator of World Oncology Forum, and a former President of
the Union for International Cancer Control, with a special interest in promoting
better access to affordable treatments across the globe. He is also Scientific
Director of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, and chair of the
International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group, specialising in research on
malignant lymphoma, including new anti-cancer drug development.
Cora Sternberg is an American urologist who started her career at Memorial
Sloan Kettering in New York, later moving to Rome, where she is now head of
medical oncology at Rome’s San Camillo and Forlanini Hospitals. She founded
the Samuel and Barbara Sternberg Cancer Research Foundation, to support
cancer research in Italy. She led the Genitourinary cancers work of the
European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) for
many years, and is now the Scientific Programme Committee Track Leader for
the American Association of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in 2014, and is in charge
of Genitourinary Cancer education for the European Society of Medical
Oncology (ESMO).
Jan Geissler is a Co-Founder of the global CML Advocates Network
(cmladvocates.net), Vice President of Leukemia Patient Advocates
Foundation, chair of the German advocacy group Leukaemie-Online.de/
LeukaNET, Germany and founder and managing director of the think tank
Patvocates.net. He is also Director of the European Patients’ Academy on
Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI), and a member of two European
Commission Experts Groups (on Cancer Control and on Rare Diseases).
Marek Kania is Vice President for Medical Affairs at Lilly Oncology, responsible
for the global medical organisation and late-phase product development. He
was instrumental in the development and approval of Lilly’s chemotherapy
products Gemzar and Alimta, and he led the clinical development of Erbitux
after Lilly acquired ImClone. Marek trained as a medical doctor at the Silesian
School of Medicine in Katowice, Poland, and practised as an anaesthesiologist
and critical care physician.
José Martin-Moreno, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the
University of Valencia, has held posts as Director General of Public Health &
Chief Medical Officer of Spain, Director of the Spanish Agency for Health
Technology Assessment, and Deputy Director-General of the National Institute
of Health Carlos III. He is currently advisor to the WHO Regional Office for
Europe. His recent research includes exploring the effects of the financial crisis
on cancer prevention, and the social nature of chronic, noncommunicable
diseases.
This event is organised by the ESO Cancer Media Service in collaboration with ESMO
`