Manju George, Scientific Director at PALTOWN Development Foundation, shared on LinkedIn:
“Back home after a hectic and wonderful week in Vail, Colorado!
I was able to get to Vail early and bike part of the Vail Bike Pass trail with my family. Quite scenic and very enjoyable, mountains are my happy place!
The American Association for Cancer Research, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop is back at Vail this year!
This year was especially awesome thanks to agenda updates by the fantastic Workshop co-chairs, Dr Timothy Yap, Dr. Tari King and Dr. Wendy London and AACR’s Dean Post who all worked hard to move the meeting back to Vail.
I love this workshop because I get to interact with the rising stars in GI Oncology who are part of my PDG.
It is quite a bit of work reading the various parts of their protocols and providing feedback, but also incredibly rewarding!
It was a treat to have Dr. Tim Yap and Dr. Paul Oberstein as the PDG10 clinical faculty and Dr. Sujata Patil was super amazing as the biostats faculty.
And we were lucky to have Dr. Li Zhang as our Junior Biostats Faculty in our PDG!
As always, it was great to learn so much from the engaging faculty and learners through the daily discussions.
I loved the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion on the role of Research Advocates in Clinical Trials with Cassadie Moravek, expertly moderated by Sanford Jeames.
The small-group discussion on ctDNA in clinical trials was also fun and energizing.
The format Dr. Yap uses for this session allows for a lot of interesting discussion and engagement. I missed this session last year because the small-group discussions are held in parallel, and it is always hard to decide which ones to attend!
One of the things I especially value about Vail is the opportunity to meet other Vail Patient Advocate Faculty, hear about all their activities, and learn from one another. I really missed Jill Feldman this year, hoping to see you next year, Jill.
It was great to meet the returning Patient advocate Faculty including the folks mentioned above and Carole Baas, Josh Mailman (TY Josh for co-funding the workshop), Diana Chingos and meet the new MCCR Patient advocate Faculty, Patty Spears, Wenora Johnson, Valarie Traynham, Julia Maués and Woody Brokenburr.
As a colorectal cancer patient advocate interested in clinical trials, the MCCR is a wonderful learning opportunity for me because of the fantastic clinical trials-related lectures from the amazing faculty, who make time for this week of intensive work every year!
Learners arrive with a concept for an early phase trial and leave with a fully fleshed out IRB-ready protocol, and it is fascinating every year to watch the process unfold.
I am grateful that we had 11 Patient Advocate Faculty this year. The various patient advocate panels & discussions show how patient-centric this workshop is.
Looking forward to all the great work from the PDG10 Learners!”
