The British Sarcoma Group annual conference in 2013 is being programmed by members of the East Midlands Sarcoma Specialist MDT chaired by Mr Rob Ashford. The Conference starts with a patient advocacy day supported by the three main charities, Sarcoma UK, the Bone Cancer Research Trust and GIST Support UK. Nurses and other clinicians are invited to join the patients from lunch-time for a number of focussed workshops addressing key issues of the day selected by both the charities and the BSG. Read more

For the first time ever, scientists have identified a specific genetic risk factor that, when present, significantly increases the chances that an individual will develop chordoma. This discovery – a milestone outcome of the Chordoma Foundation’s significant investment in the Chordoma Genome Project over the past three years – provides unprecedented insight into how chordoma forms, and potentially how to effectively treat it.

The multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor regorafenib significantly delays disease progression in virtually all subgroups of patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) in the second-line setting, and may even confer benefits when continued after progression, according to subgroup and post-progression analyses of the phase III GRID trial presented at the ESMO 2012 Congress. The current exploratory analyses were presented at ESMO 2012 by Peter Reichardt, MD, PhD, of HELIOS Klinikum in Bad Saarow, Germany. Read more at OncLive. At OncLive there are also related articles and videos on different aspects of GIST treatment available.