Twenty Years of CTOS: The Transdisciplinary Society Dedicated to Studying the Rare and Helping the Underserved

Excerpt

Since its inception in 1995, the international Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS) has been dedicated to improving the clinical outcomes for patients with a rare but often aggressive form of mesenchymal neoplasia, collectively known as sarcomas. Physicians and scientists from around the world have come together once a year to share their latest data, imparting wisdom but also taking critical feedback from the membership. Every medical discipline is represented in the Society as well as on the board of directors and presidential line. Over the span of 20 years, we have grown from an initial meeting of ten experts gathering in the basement of Massachusetts General Hospital to over 1100 members from 29 countries. The last meeting, held in Salt Lake City, Utah, hosted 354 abstracts covering all aspects of sarcomatology and honored our founding father, Herman Suit, MD. Our featured speakers included two world-renowned clinical and molecular pathologists, Christopher Fletcher, MD, and Julia Bridge, MD, respectively. Symposia included models and approaches to the study of sarcoma, genetic risk, and adolescent and young adult oncology. We also had a special session dedicated to circulating tumor DNA. Each year has seen a growth in the quantity and quality of intellectual effort. Much thanks must be given to our immediate past president, Paolo Dei Tos, MD, our program co-chair, Matt van de Rign, MD, PhD, and the program committee. Because the majority of the sarcoma professional community travels to CTOS, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) holds their sarcoma basic biology meeting adjacent to CTOS when in the United States. Furthermore, SARC, the clinical trials organization, also holds one of their semiannual meetings at CTOS (the other being ASCO). This coming fall, we travel to Lisbon under the auspices of the Annals’ own Alessandro Gronchi, who currently serves as our president. It is sure to be a magnificent program, with the latest and most relevant research in sarcomatology presented by our committed international membership. …