LRG Canada held its third successful annual general meeting (AGM) on November 5 in the West Coast city of Vancouver, British Columbia. The event began with a talk by Dr. Cheng-han Lee of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at Vancouver General Hospital and University of British Columbia. Dr. Lee gave an excellent introduction to the state-of-the-art in GIST treatment, and explained possible new avenues for research, such as the recent work of Dr. DeMatteo and colleagues at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center on the interaction between imatinib and the T-cell component of the immune response. We are very grateful to Dr. Lee for his presentation and we appreciated his open and accessible approach.
The talk was followed by the AGM business meeting and the election of the Board for 2012. The meeting venue at the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel was firstrate, and the weather cooperated too!
Life Raft Group Canada continues to grow rapidly. We now have more than 100 members, spanning Canada from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Vancouver. Currently, a Medical Advisory Council is being established and we are working hard to advocate for improved access to treatment for GIST patients across the country.