A Collaborative Initiative of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS) & Sarcoma Patients EuroNet (SPAEN)
A recent paper published in Cancers, was the result of a global roundtable sponsored by CTOS and SPAEN.
You can view the paper here: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/14/4/854
Held on November 9, 2021, patients and advocates from Sarcoma Patients EuroNet (SPAEN) and medical experts from the Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS) met as an ancillary part of the CTOS 2021 Annual meeting. Representatives from both organizations discussed the challenges and roadblocks to effective global sarcoma care and management. This paper highlights the major findings and proposes potential future steps.
Both the LRG’s Sara Rothschild, Vice President of Program Services, and Piga Fernández, LRG Global Consultant, who was also representing Fundación GIST Chile, were invited to this roundtable, as patient advocates, with the goal in mind of publishing a paper on sarcoma care and the challenges globally. Their role was to give their opinion, as patients and patient advocates on the topics that were discussed.
According to Piga, “As patient advocates, participating in this Round Table was very important. It was a great opportunity to make visible the difficult journey sarcoma patients must travel before reaching the final correct diagnosis and correct treatment. The main difficulties identified were the lack of specialists, difficult access to treatments and the long time that patients have to wait until they reach a center of excellence where they can be treated effectively. We were able to highlight the need to educate primary care professionals, to shorten the time of diagnosis, and the importance of global collaborative efforts to address the multiple problems sarcoma patients have.”
According to SPAEN, “It’s a remarkable first step of a truly global initiative of Sarcoma Experts and Patient Advocates with the aim to address and overcome challenges in sarcoma care together. We brought experience and expertise from all stakeholders, from many parts of the world, from different areas of expertise together and hope to continue to do so! With hard work, enthusiasm, dedication, collaboration, and time, we aim to ultimately improve sarcoma management for patients around the globe.”