The GOC News

THE SOCIETY OF GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGISTS OF CANADALA SOCIÉTÉ DES GYNÉCOLOGUES ONCOLOGUES DU CANADA

Over 25 Years of Excellence in Women’s Cancer Care

The Society of Gynecologic Oncologists of CanadaLa société des gynécologues oncologues du Canada

Newsletter Editor: Dr. Helen Steedhelenste@cancerboard.ab.ca

The GOC News is printed on a quarterly basis. Please send any comments or news items to Dr. Helen Steed or Hélène Soublière, National Coordinator:780 Echo Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5R7Tel: 1 800 561-2416 or (613) 730-4192Fax: (613) 730-4314E-mail: hsoubliere@sogc.comWeb Site: www.g-o-c.org

The GOC acknowledges the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada for their continued support of our Society.

Volume 6 Issue 3Fall 2006

Inside this issue:

NOCA Offers Grant ................2

GOC Wins IGCS 2012 Bid .......2

Dr. Plante President-Elect ........3

AGM Report ..........................4

Academic Corner ...................6

Welcome New Members ........9

News from the Centres ........10

Dr. Kenneth D. Swenerton Receives the GOC Presidential MedalThe Society of Gynecologic Oncologists of Can-ada was very pleased to recognize and celebrate the inspiring achievements of our Presidential Medal recipient, Dr. Ken Swenerton. As Dr. Provencher phrased it “GOC Ambassador, Solid as a Rock”. During Dr. Swenerton’s career, he has established himself as a team member and as a true leader. He has been actively involved in numerous multi-center studies and committees and has had a very successful academic career. He is highly respected by his peers and known to be a very compassionate man providing su-perb care to his patients. He is actively involved in our Society and an advocate for GOC. He is an excellent mentor for our Society’s junior members.

The Presidential Medal Award ceremony was held on June 24, 2006 at the Museum of An-thropology in Vancouver during the GOC’s 27th AGM.

Congratulations Ken on the Presidential Medal - a truly well earned recognition!

Dr. Diane Provencher, Dr. Ken Swenerton, Mrs. Mary Frey, Dr. Michael Fung-Kee-Fung

GOC Welcomes its 14th President Dr. Barry RosenThe Society of Gynecologic Oncologists of Canada is very proud to introduce to you its 14th President, Dr. Barry Rosen. Dr. Rosen obtained his MD at the Uni-versity of Western Ontario, completed a residency in obstetrics/gynaecology, and sub-specialty training in gynaeco-logic oncology at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. Dr. Rosen is currently Head of the Divi-sion of Gynaecologic Oncology, Depart-ment of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Toronto and is Director of the Familial Ovarian Cancer Clinic at

Princess Margaret Hospital/ University Health Network. His research activity is focused on ovarian cancer including familial ovarian cancer, ovarian cancer prevention, and treatment through integration with basic scientists at the UHN Genomic Research Centre. He is on the Executive of the Gynae-cologic Disease Site Group of NCIC, is a member of the Cancer Care Ontario Guidelines Committee, is also involved in cancer prevention studies involving cervical cancer and HPV.

Page 2 - The GOC News

Royal College Survey Results – Gynecologic Oncology Recently, a survey was sent to all 16 medical schools regarding Gynecologic Oncology. Fifteen of the 16 schools replied. In summary, 66 fellows have been trained, but approximately 50% have relocated outside of Canada. In the next 10 years, 32 gynecologic oncologists need to be trained, 10 are needed now and 12 for upcoming retirees. At the current levels of 1.16 fellows per year per training program, and with only a 50% retention rate, this will take a very long time. At present there are six centres that are Royal College approved with UBC and London recently having been approved. The others are: University of Calgary, University of Manitoba, University of To-ronto with McMaster Program and the University of Montreal.

Presently, McGill has applied and Ottawa plans to apply as well. You will also note that 60% of graduates are males and 40% are females. However, this is predicted to likely reverse in the near future.

Some “food for thought” about the future of our specialty and the likely impending shortage.

GOC Partners with NOCA to Address Urgent Need for Gyn OncologistsBy Elisabeth Ross, Executive Director, NOCA

With the percentage of Canadians over 65 increasing over the next 10 years, the incidence of gynecological cancers is also expected to be on the rise, increasing 47% between 2001 and 2014. At the same time, research has demonstrated that outcomes following surgery are best when the surgery is done by a gynecologi-cal oncologist (Gynecol Oncol. 2005 Nov;99:447-61). In response to these two issues, Dr. Barry Rosen has done projections related to the number of gynecologic oncologists who will be needed in the next 10 years in Canada, to ensure the best care with minimal wait times.

Currently in Canada, there are approximately 47 gynecological oncologists. Based on increased prevalence, by 2014, a total of 84, or 37 more doctors will be re-quired. This does not take into account retirees. If the current rate of ob-gyns choosing gynecologic oncology specialization continues, it will be simply impos-sible to keep up with the demand. The result? Suboptimal treatment for women diagnosed with these cancers.

In response to this issue, the National Ovarian Cancer Association (NOCA) has partnered with The Society of Gynecologic Oncologists of Canada (GOC) to pro-vide grants to obstetrics and gynaecology residents who choose gynecologic oncology as an elective. A monetary award of $1,500 would cover travel and housing to a cancer centre to work with a gynecologic oncology team during a one month elective.

For the first year, beginning in the fall 2006, $18,000 will be provided for 12 awards, and this funding will be reassessed after year one, based on response to the program. Local cancer teams will assist with finding affordable housing. Guidelines and a selection process are being developed by GOC although in year one the process will be kept very simple to expedite recruitment. The desired out-come is an increase in the number of ob-gyn residents who choose this specialty and remain in Canada to practice.

For more information or to apply, please contact Mrs. Hélène Soublière at the GOC National Office by email at hsoubliere@sogc.com or by phone at 613.730-4192 ext. 250 or 800.561.2416 ext. 250.

Update from the Royal College Nucleus Committee and New Gynecology Oncology ExamsThe Royal College Nucleus Committee on Gynecologic Oncology (Drs. Garry Krepart, Al Covens, Prafull Ghatage, Diane Provencher, Bob Lotocki, Dianne Miller, Akira Sugimoto and Jim Bentley) has responded to the Royal College’s requests for examinations in the gynecologic oncology specialty very posi-tively. Starting in 2009, there will be an examination in gynecologic oncology. GOC has been invited to play a pivotal role and Dr. Barry Rosen, President of GOC, has agreed to GOC’s involvement of establishing an examining committee and preparation of questions for the Royal College. Many GOC members have been Program Directors, Chief Examiners or Exam Committee Members in the past and this experience will be extremely valuable. This is a unique opportunity for GOC and we look forward to working with the Royal College.

GOC Wins Bid to Host IGCS 2012!We are extremely pleased to pass on the news that the GOC bid to host the 2012 IGCS meeting in Vancouver, led by Mark Heywood, Dianne Miller and Barry Rosen, was successful! As most of you know, Vancouver is a fantastic site to have a conference. We will work with IGCS to plan an outstanding meeting. Special thanks go to Joan Murphy and Ken Swenerton who led the previous bid. Their efforts and the learnings from that previous bid were the spark for this more recent success. Thank you also to all Heads of Gynecologic Oncology Departments across Canada who wrote letters of support. We were able to show IGCS Council that this was a Pan Canadian supported bid.

A thank you also needs to be extended to our Past-President Diane Provencher, to Hélène Soublière and to Ida Ackerman and Gillian Thomas who advised us on the development of the bid book.

The impact of this on the specialty as a whole will be great as we all work together to showcase to the world Gyn Oncology in Canada. This is an opportunity for us all to work together on planning and running this meeting. It is also an opportunity to encourage all of you to attend in 2012 and to encourage the radiation oncologists and others involved in gyn oncology to also attend.

Special mention must go to our President, Dr. Barry Rosen, whose leadership, tenacity and skill nailed this for us all. This will be one for the history books.

WWW.G-O-C.ORG

Vol. 6 Issue 3 - Page 3

A Word from the President I have now been President of GOC for three months, and I am amazed at all that is happening within this relatively small organization.

Michael Fung-Kee-Fung, Joan Murphy, Diane Provencher and others have been working on developing a cohesive plan involving GOC as a central player in both research and implementation of the new HPV vaccine. This has involved partnering with CAIRE, NACI, SOGC and SCC in developing a consistent message to both physicians and the public. Through their leadership, GOC has become one of Canada’s leading organizations in this very exciting and probably revolutionary change for cer-vical cancer prevention.

GOC has won its bid to host the 2012 IGCS meeting in Vancouver. This has been a coordinated effort involving Dianne Miller, Mark Heywood, Tourism Vancouver and myself. Winning this bid provides GOC with a long term

project and an opportunity to show Canada to the world from a gyneco-logic oncology perspective. This suc-cessful bid will elevate us even further in becoming the spokesperson for gy-necologic cancers in Canada. We were the first national specialty group to submit a bid for this meeting; all other bids were submitted by local university or city groups.

Since last spring, GOC has been work-ing with Ovarian Cancer Canada (OCC) and National Ovarian Cancer Asso-ciation (NOCA) to initiate a project to further build on our relationship in collaborating to promote the best care for women with ovarian cancer. NOCA has also stepped forward to offer scholarships to ob-gyn residents interested in a career in gynecologic oncology which will provide financial support to do an elective in another centre and to explore their options for a career in gyn oncology. You will hear more about this in this issue of the

newsletter and over the next year.

I have given myself a couple of specific objectives I wish to explore over the duration of my presidency. The first is in the area of human resource plan-ning for our specialty. Tied very closely to that is the notion that as a group, we provide better quality of care to women with gynecologic cancers than non-oncology trained physicians. Last spring, I attended a conference on sur-gical oncology in Alberta at which we explored the role of quality in cancer care. I believe GOC and gynecologic oncology has a lot to offer this kind of effort and because it ultimately is closely linked to human resource is-sues, I believe that it is a very worth-while endeavor for our Society to work on.

GOC is currently involved in other projects as well. These include IP che-motherapy standards, cervical cancer screening, the development of nation-

al guidelines, the development of a Royal College examination process for our fellowship trainees, and in the near future we will embark on a project to further the develop minimally invasive surgery for the cancer patient. All of these projects need time, consensus building to establish pan Canadian accepted goals and objectives, and they will need well thought-out imple-mentation strategies. To succeed in all these areas, we require more infra-structure resources and we will need more GOC members to get involved in helping to develop and manage these projects.

I look forward to speaking with many of you in the future about your partici-pation in GOC related activities. If you would like to be involved in a specific project please let me know.

Introducing Dr. Marie Plante, GOC’s President-ElectWe are very pleased to announce the membership’s support of Dr. Marie Plante as President-Elect. Dr. Plante received her medical degree from Laval University in 1985 and completed her residency in Obstet-rics and Gynecology at McGill Uni-versity in 1990. She then completed a three-year fellowship training in Gynecologic Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York in 1993. Since then she has been on staff at l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec.

Dr. Plante is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Laval University. She is Chief of the Gyne-cologic Oncology Division at Laval University and in charge of the clini-cal research in gynecologic oncol-ogy at l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec.

Dr. Plante’s major interest is mini-mally invasive surgical approaches in the treatment of gynecologic cancers and in fertility-preserving surgery for young women with cervical cancer. Together with Dr.

Michel Roy, she has written nu-merous articles on the subject and several book chapters on the surgical tech-nique. She has been involved with several pos tgraduate courses to teach the procedure and has lec-tured at several local, national and internation-al meetings on the subject. Dr. Plante has tutored dozens of fellows and gynecologic oncologists from all over the country and from the U.S. in laparoscopic and vaginal surgery. She has recently returned to Québec City after spending a year in Vancouver, BC to help establish Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) in gynecologic oncology. She has helped greatly advance our specialty with this innovative surgical technique and is acknowledged for

her impressive work in this area. Her goals are to continue to develop MIS so that Canadi-an women have access to these techniques ev-erywhere in the country, and to continue to ex-pand and study ultraconserva-tive surgical ap-proaches in the management of very early stage cervical cancer.

Dr. Plante’s other main interest is in fa-milial breast-ovary cancer. She is Head of the Familial Ovarian Cancer Clinic at l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec. She has been very involved with the “INHERIT BRCA group” and holds grants from both CIHR and NCIC in which to further study breast-ovarian cancer. She has also actively participated in the prepa-ration of Canadian guidelines for the

clinical management recommenda-tions for surveillance and risk-reduc-tion strategies in mutation carriers.

Apart from her successful and de-manding academic career, Dr. Plan-te is married to André D’Amboise and is the mother of 2 children, Catherine 8 and François 5 years old. Her personal interests include athletics (running, tennis), and mu-sic and the arts.

We are very fortunate to have such an inspiring and successful col-league to welcome as our Presi-dent-Elect!

Page 4 - The GOC News

The setting for the 27th Annual Gen-eral Meeting was to say the least spectacular. We had amazing weather in beautiful Vancouver that just aug-mented the scientific program tre-mendously. This 27th Annual General Meeting had many highlights. First, we had over 20 oral presentations and 6 poster presentations. The focus of the meeting was primarily driven at expanding our knowledge in intra-peritoneal chemotherapy, the role of PET scanning and the management of cervical cancer and looking popu-lation outcomes both in endometrial and ovarian cancers. The meeting also included the first face-to-face meeting of the GOC Task Force on Cervical Can-cer Prevention and Control Committee as well as the usual formal business meeting. GOC’s Royal College invited guest speaker was Dr. Paul H. Sugar-baker, who spoke eloquently on the peritoneum as the first line of defense in carcinomatosis. Dr. Sugarbaker is renowned for his innovation and his thought processes around the role of the peritoneum in cancer. He is most famous for his peritoneal stripping and the use of various therapies within the endometrium including hypothermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy. More on this in this newsletter.

Dr. Provencher presented an update on the manual for HPV, the HPV Mono-graph, which is a knowledge tool be-ing developed by GOC with CAIRE in association with other societies includ-

ing SOGC and SCC. This is a high level 14 chapter monograph based on slide presentations that are going to be used for educating the GOC member-ship on the role of HPV and HPV vac-cine and the impact on cervical cancer control.

Guest lecturer Dr. Perry W. Grigsby from St. Louis spoke on the clinical uses of PET scanning for cervical cancer and gave an extraordinarily eloquent and insightful talk which made us all fully aware of the limitations and the great potential uses of PET scanning in cervi-cal cancer. In fact PET scanning is now a standard part of the treatment pro-tocol in his institution. The GOC Social Event was held at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. In this amazing setting, we were able to witness the presentation of the GOC medal to Dr. Ken Swenerton as well as enjoy a very entertaining evening with a great meal.

The SOGC-GOC International Sympo-sium “Cancer Treatment and Fertility: Keeping our Options Open” was also a major hit and was fully subscribed. The inauguration of the GOC’s 14th President, Dr. Barry Rosen, was done at the Annual Business Meeting. Dr. Ma-rie Plante will be the 15th President. There was approval from all for Marie to take this mandate.

Dr. Barry Rosen receives Presidential Plaque from Dr. Diane Provencher

GOC Group

Drs. Dianne Miller, Ken Swenerton, Sarah Finlayson, Tom Ehlen and Gavin Stuart

A review of GOC’s Royal College Speaker PresentationGOC was fortunate to have Dr. Paul H. Sugarbaker as its Royal College speaker this year’s AGM. Paul H. Sugarbaker, MD, FACS, FRCS is a graduate of Cornell and Harvard Universities, and is from Wash-ington Cancer Institute. His talk, titled “Pathophysiology of the Peritoneum: Is It an Organ?” described in great detail the physiology, histology and inflam-matory environment of the peritoneum and his rationale/theories for the “Sug-arbaker procedure” in select groups of patients. He is also a proponent for the use of perioperative intraperitoneal che-motherapy in gastric carcinoma which is especially interesting at the current time with the renewed interest in intraperito-neal chemotherapy for ovarian cancer.

Dr. Rachel Kupets

GOC’s 27th Annual General Meeting ReportThe 27th Annual General Meeting in Beautiful Vancouver

All AGM presentations are avail-able on the GOC website. You must log in as a member.

Vol. 6 Issue 3 - Page 5

International Symposium 8: Cancer Treatment and Fertility: Keeping the Options Open

By Marie Plante, MD, IS8 Course DirectorJudging by the number of people who attended the International Symposium on Cancer Treatment and Fertility, it is clear that the subject was of interest for both the general ob-gyn member-ship and the gyne-oncology member-ship. It is obvious that fertility preser-vation is becoming a major issue in the counseling of young women facing a diagnosis of cancer. It is thus of ut-most importance that general ob-gyn and gyne-oncologists be at the cutting edge of new surgical/treatment op-tions in order to maximize the chances that these young women preserve their fertility potential despite their cancer treatment.

The presentations were all excellent. Dr. Plante first gave an update on the obstetrical and oncological outcome following the fertility-preserving radi-cal vaginal trachelectomy procedure in young women with early-stage dis-

ease. As data accumulate worldwide, it appears that the radical trachelec-tomy procedure is a safe option in well selected women with early lesions and the obstetrical outcome also appear very promising.

Dr. Marie-Claude Renaud from Laval University, Québec City gave a good overview of the conservative manage-ment of endometrial carcinoma in young women who wish to preserve fertility, highlighting the potential pit-falls and the fact that available data remains fairly limited. In particular, guidelines are lacking in terms of ideal patient selection, choice, dose and duration of progestational agents, monitoring etc. Nevertheless in well selected patients, fertility preservation is possible.

Dr. Walter Gotlieb from McGill Uni-versity, Montréal, then gave a detailed

5th Annual Run for Her Life™The Annual Run for Her Life™ continues to be a success. The 5th Annual Run was held on the Sunday morning to an enthusiastic group of GOC members, guests and friends. This involved a run or walk around beautiful Stanley Park. We were sent off by Evelyn Lazare, Executive Director for Ovarian Cancer Cana-da (OCC), who urged all participants to continue their commitment to support-ing ovarian cancer research and treatment. Many members turned up, young and old, to participate in this fun run and the pictures included here testify to the great time had by all. Run for Her Life™ has become a growing event for all of us. We look forward to having another significant Run at next year’s meet-

GOC’s 27th Annual General Meeting Report

review of the conservative manage-ment of young women with border-line tumors of the ovary with emphasis on fertility preservation. Based on the data presented by Dr. Gotlieb, it is clear that conservative surgical man-agement (unilateral oophorectomy) is the rule in women wishing to preserve fertility and that there is no need to do a full staging in early stage disease. An ovarian cystectomy alone is more controversial as the risk of recurrence in the remaining ovary is higher, al-though the overall outcome remains excellent. Fertility preservation is achievable. Conservative management remains controversial in advanced stage disease and treatment needs to be individualized.

Lastly, Dr. David Lee from Portland Oregon, gave an extensive review of the new developments in artificial technologies to preserve fertility in

young cancer patients. His presenta-tion was provocative and it is clear that new technologies, namely oocyte cryopreservation and ovarian tissue freezing followed by reimplantation, open a whole host of new options for these young cancer patients. Although experimental in most places, gynecolo-gists need to team up with infertility specialists in order to allow rapid ac-cess to thorough consultation and, when indicated, proceed quickly with ovarian tissue sampling prior to the initiation of cancer treatment. It is a very exciting new field opening up be-fore us, and we need to remain at the forefront of these new developments.

Overall, the evaluation of the sympo-sium was very positive. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the speakers for their outstanding presen-tations.

AGM Abstract Program Award Winners:1st place: Dr. Mario Beiner, fellow in Toronto for his abstract titled: Endometrial Cancer Risk is Associated with Variants of the Mismatch Repair Genes MLH1 and MSH2

2nd place: Dr. James Biagi, med onc in Kingston for his abstract titled: Survival for Ovarian Cancer Patients is not Compromised by Decreased Dose Density of Standard Chemotherapy

Best poster: Dr. Cecilia Kerner, resident in London – for her poster titled: Chemotherapy in Advanced Ovarian Cancer: what is the Optimal Number of Cycles?

Winner of Poster Raffle – a $200 indigo.ca gift certificate is Dr. Michel Préfontaine

ing in Ottawa. Money from the Run is donated to a regional ovarian cancer charity either for research or patient support. This year, a total of $2,100 was collected and donated to Ovarian Cancer Canada.

The run was also sponsored this year as in the past by GlaxoSmithKline and the unique souvenir for this year’s Run was a GOC umbrella which was a great success. Special thanks to Dr. Joan Murphy, Mrs. Hélène Soublière, Ovarian Cancer Canada, in particular Trish Walsh, Tod Arnold of GSK and The Running Room for their help in organizing this year’s event.

Page 6 - The GOC News

GOC’s 2006 Abstract Programme – 27th Annual General Meeting, Vancouver, BC

AbstractsThe first place Abstract M Beiner, B Rosen, A Fyles, I Har-ley, P Sun, S Narod. ENDOMETRIAL CANCER RISK IS ASSOCIATED WITH VARIANTS OF THE MISMATCH RE-PAIR GENES MLH1 AND MSH2

The second place AbstractA Molckovsky, S Vijay, P Bryson, J Jeffrey, J Biagi. SURVIVAL FOR OVARIAN CANCER PATIENTS IS NOT COMPROMISED BY DECREASED DOSE DENSITY OF STANDARD CHE-MOTHERAPY

W Chapman, E Morgen, S Boerner, J Murphy, S Laframboise, B Rosen, P Shaw. HISTOLOGIC CORRELA-TION AND HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS (HPV) STATUS IN PATIENTS REFERRED FOR COLPOSCOPY WITH PAP INTERPRETATIONS OF ATYPI-CAL SQUAMOUS CELLS OF UNDE-TERMINED SIGNIFICANCE (ASC-US) AND LOW GRADE SQUAMOUS IN-TRAEPITHELIAL LESION (LSIL)

L Dawson, P Power, D Fontaine. CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING IN NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

D Denschlag, K Hancke, O Strauch, H Goebel, G Gitsch, L Gilbert. SPHIN-GOSINE-1-PHOSPHATE PROTECTS OVARIES FROM CHEMOTHERAPY-INDUCED DAMAGE IN VIVO

V Dubé, J Grigull, S Ghanny, A Ro-maschin, M Siu, T Colgan. NEW EN-DOMETRIAL CANCER BIOMARKERS: TISSUE VERIFICATION USING TISSUE MICROARRAY AND BIOINFORMATIC ANALYSIS

L Elit, N Hodgson, R Cameron. CER-VICAL CANCER INCIDENCE AND-SURVIVAL RATES AMONG ABORIGI-NAL WOMEN: ANALYSIS OF SEER 13 DATA

L Elit, L Paszat, C Chartier, A Oza, H Hirte, M Levine. OUTCOMES FOR CHEMOTHERAPY IN OVARIAN CAN-CER

A Gari, R Lotocki, G Krepart, S Popo-wich, A Demers. CERVICAL CANCER IN THE PROVINCE OF MANITOBA, A 30 YEARS EXPERIENCE

C Giede. PATTERNS OF RECURRENCE IN PRIMARY SQUAMOUS AND AD-ENOCARCINOMA OF THE VAGINA

J Hauspy, C Lee, M Prasad, J Murphy, B Rosen, J Squire. RESISTANCE IN OVAR-IAN CANCER: PROFILE OF A NUCLEAR COMPLEX

N Ismiil, G Rasty, M Bernardini, Z Gho-rab, S Nofech-Mozes, M Khalifa, A Covens. WELL DIFFERENTIATED ENDO-METRIAL ADENOCARINOMA INVOLV-ING ADENOMYOSIS IS A SIGNIFICANT RISK FOR MYOMETRIAL INVASION

R Kupets, P Bunting, A Covens. THE USE OF A COMPUTER GENERATED REMINDER AS A METHOD TO IMPLE-MENT GUIDELINES FOR THE MAN-AGEMENT OF LOW GRADE ABNOR-MALITIES ON PAP SMEAR: A PILOT PROJECT

J Kwon, M Carey, E Cook, L Paszat. DO PROLONGED WAITING TIMES HAVE AN IMPACT ON SURVIVAL IN ENDO-METRIAL CANCER?

J Kwon, M Carey, E Cook, L Paszat. THE IMPACT OF SURGICAL STAGING AND ADJUVANT RADIOTHERAPY ON SURVIVAL IN ENDOMETRIAL CANCER: A POPULATION-BASED STUDY

K Lupe, J Kwon, M Carey, D D’Souza, C Gawlik. ADJUVANT CARBOPLATIN AND PACLITAXEL CHEMOTHERAPY AND IN-VOLVED FIELD RADIATION IN WOMEN WITH HIGH-RISK ENDOMETRIAL CAN-CER: A SEQUENTIAL APPROACH

J Murphy, W Jiménez, W Chapman, B Rosen, J Dodge. ACCURACY OF HU-MAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV) TEST-ING IN IDENTIFYING PATIENTS WITH HIGH RISK CERVICAL NEOPLASIAS AMONGST WOMEN REFERRED FOR COLPOSCOPY WITH ATYPICAL GLAN-DULAR CELLS (AGC) IN PAP SMEAR

B Rosen, R Howlett, L Merrett, M Innes, M McLachlin. DECREASING INCIDENCE OF CERVICAL ADENOCARCINOMA

B Rosen, J Murphy, S Laframboise, J Dodge, D De Petrillo, S Rogozinsky, M Thompson. ROLE OF SURGEON IN THE OUTCOME OF OVARIAN CANCER

C Williams, P Petignat, M Jolicoeur, P Drouin, P Sauthier, D Provencher, T Nguyen, P Gauthier. EFFICACY OF ADJUVANT CARBOPLATIN AND PACLITAXEL FOLLOWED BY CON-CURRENT RADIATION THERAPY IN PATIENTS WITH UTERINE PAPILLARY SEROUS CARCINOMA

C Williams, P Petignat, P Drouin, P Sauthier, D Provencher, P Gauthier. IMPORTANCE OF SURGICAL STAG-ING IN PATIENTS WITH UTERINE PAPILLARY SEROUS CARCINOMA

PostersBest PosterC Kerner, J Kwon, M Carey, A Sugi-moto. CHEMOTHERAPY IN AD-VANCED OVARIAN CANCER: WHAT IS THE OPTIMAL NUMBER OF CY-CLES?

M Beiner, A Finch, B Rosen, P Sun, S Narod. THE RISK OF ENDOMETRIAL CANCER IN WOMEN WITH BRCA1 AND BRCA2 MUTATIONS - A PRO-SPECTIVE STUDY.

J Hauspy, D Grisaru, M Prasad, M Al-bert, J Murphy, A Covens, B Rosen, J Squire. VALIDATION OF MICRO-ARRAY EXPRESSION IDENTIFICA-TION OF DIFFERENTIALY EXPRESSED GENES BY QUANTITATIVE REAL TIME RT-PCR IN SEROUS EPITHE-LIAL OVARIAN CANCER COMPARED WITH BULK NORMAL OVARIAN TISSUE AND OVARIAN SURFACE SCRAPINGS.

I Bruchim, M Pollak, J Gu, S Lau, Y Shi, W Gotlieb. INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH FACTOR RECEPTOR-I TAR-GETING AS TREATMENT FOR OVAR-IAN CANCER.

D Denschlag, L Tan, S Patel, A Kerim-Dikeni, L Souhami, L Gilbert. STAGE III ENDOMETRIAL CANCER: PRE-OPERATIVE PREDICTABILITY, PROG-NOSTIC FACTORS AND TREATMENT OUTCOME

E Sagr, D Denschlag, A Kerim-Dikeni, G Stanimir, L Gilbert . PROGNOSTIC FACTORS AND OUTCOME IN PA-TIENTS WITH UTERINE PAPILLARY SEROUS CARCINOMA.

PresentationsT. Le, W. Hicks Boucher, C. Menard, L. Hopkins, M. Fung-Kee-Fung. “Pre-liminary Result of Continuous 5% Im-miquimod Cream Application in the Primary Treatment of Vulva Intraepi-thelial Neoplasia Grade 2/3”, 2006 American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology Biennial Meeting, Las Vegas, Nevada, March 13-17, 2006.

M. Fung-Kee-Fung, A. Abdulla, E. Goubanova, K. Sequeira, R. Cook, B. Langer, H. Stern, “Collaboration to Cre-ate Communities of Practice in Surgical Oncology: A Key Component of Link-ing Knowledge Transfer to Quality”, poster presentation at the 8th Annual Canadian Health Services Research Foundation Invitational Workshop – Innovation Through Collaboration: Working Together for an Evidence-In-formed Health System, Vancouver, BC, March 21-22, 2006.

C. DeGrasse, M. Fung-Kee-Fung, H. Stern, J. Smylie, J. Watters, E. Gou-banova, K. Sequeira, “Enhancing the Coordination and Standardization of Regional Cancer Surgery”, poster presentation, Celebrating Innovations in Health Care Expo 2006, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Toronto, ON, April 18-19, 2006.

M. Lefebvre, K. Ritchie, L. Smith-Walk-er, I. Valdivia, M. Fung-Kee-Fung, “The Cognitive and Psychosocial Impact of Chemotherapy on Ovarian Cancer Patients” oral presentation at the 3rd National Conference on Ovarian Can-cer, Vancouver, BC, May 13-16, 2006.

S. Verma, M. Al Hayki, T. Le, L. Hop-kins, M. Fung-Kee-Fung, K.A. Baines, L. Rambout. “Phase II Study of Exemes-tance (E) in Refractory Ovarian Cancer (ROC)”, American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, June 2-6, 2006.

M. Fung-Kee-Fung, K. Sequeira, A. Abdulla, E. Goubanova, R. Cook, B. Langer, H. Stern, “Use of Communities of Practice to Facilitate Quality Improve-ment Initiatives at the Regional Level”, The International Union Against Can-cer Conference, World Congress 2006, Washington, D.C., July 9-12, 2006.

Academic Corner

Vol. 6 Issue 3 - Page 7

Recent PublicationsM. Al Hayki, L. Hopkins, T. Le, M. Fung-Kee-Fung. “Intraperitoneal Che-motherapy for Advanced Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: A Canadian Perspec-tive”, Int. J. Gynecological Cancer, 2006;16:1761-5.

L. Elit, M. Johnston, M. Brouwers, M. Fung-Kee-Fung, G. Browman and I.D. Graham. “Promoting Best Gyne-cologic Oncology Practice: A Role for the Society of Gynecologic Oncolo-gists of Canada”, Current Oncology, 2006;13(3):94-8.

M. Fung-Kee-Fung, J. Dodge, L. Elit, H. Lukka, A. Chambers, T. Oliver and on behalf of the Cancer Care Ontario Program in Evidence-based Care Gy-necology Cancer Disease Site Group. “Follow-Up After Primary Therapy for Endometrial Cancer: A System-atic Review”, Gynecologic Oncology, 2006;101(3):520-9.

T. Le, G. Al-Shaikh, L. Hopkins, W. Faught, M. Fung-Kee-Fung. ‘Prog-nostic Significance of Post Operative Morbidities in Patients with Advanced Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Treated with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy and De-layed Primary Surgical Debulking’, An-nals of Surgical Oncology, Published online September 29, 2006.

T. Le, W. Hicks, C. Menard, L. Hopkins, M. Fung-Kee-Fung. “Preliminary Re-sults of 5% Immiquimod Creamin the Primary Treatment of Vulva Intraepi-thelial Neoplasia Grade 2/3”. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2006;194:377-80.

T. Le, L. Hopkins, K.A. Baines, L. Ram-bout, M. Al Hayki, M. Fung-Kee-Fung. “Prospective Evaluations of Continu-ous Weekly Paclitaxel Regimen in Re-current Platinum-Resistant Epithelial Ovarian Cancer”. Gynecologic Oncol-ogy, 2006;102:49-53.

T. Le, L. Hopkins, C. Menard, W. Hicks-Boucher, J. Lefebvre, M. Fung-Kee-Fung. “Psychological Morbidities Prior to Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure in the Treatment of Cervi-cal Intraepithelial Neoplasia”. Interna-tional Journal of Gynecological Cancer, 2006;16(3):1089.

T. Le, P. Shahriari, L. Hopkins, W. Faught, M. Fung-Kee-Fung. “Prog-

nostic Significance of Tumor Necrosis in Ovarian Cancer Patients Treated with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy and Interval Surgical Debulking”. Interna-tional Journal of Gynecological Cancer, 2006;16(3):986.

H. Lukka, A. Chambers, A. Fyles, K. Thephamongkhol, L. Elit, M. Fung-Kee-Fung, and members of the Gy-necology Cancer Disease Site Group. “Systematic Review of Adjuvant Ra-diotherapy in Women with Stage I En-dometrial Cancer”. Gynecology Oncol-ogy, 2006;102(2)361-8.

C. E, Samant, M. Fung-Kee-Fung, T. Le, L. Hopkins, M. Senterman. “Palliative Radiotherapy for Recurrent Granulosa Cell Tumor of the Ovary: A Report of 3 Cases with Radiological Evidence of Response”, Gynecologic Oncology, 2006;102(2):406-10.

Steed H, Capstick V, Schepansky A, Honore L, Hiltz M, Faught W. Early cer-vical cancer and parametrial involve-ment: Is it significant? Gynecol Oncol. 2006 Oct;103(1):53-7. 2006.

S. Verma, M. AlHayki, T. Le, K. Baines, L. Rambout, L. Hopkins, M. Fung-Kee-Fung. “Phase II Study of Exemes-tane (E) in Refractory Ovarian Cancer (ROC)”, Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2006;24(18S):Part I.

CAIRE/GOC Masterclass a Success!The GOC has struck an agreement with the Canadian Association of Immuni-zation and Research Evaluation (CAIRE) to develop a scientific consortium in order to advance the implementation of preventive HPV vaccines to reduce the burden of cervical cancer and its precursors. To do this, both societies have been collaborating to facilitate and increase the pool of researchers and educators involved in this domain. Both groups have developed a series of joint enabling initiatives. The first step has been to build capacity among researchers and this has taken the form of increasing the knowledge-base. A series of Masterclasses was initiated, the first of which was held in Montreal on September 22-23, 2006. The topic was “Advanced Immunology and Vac-cinology”. This one and a half day event was led by experts in the field such as Diane Harper - principal investigator for the GSK trial and investigator on the Merck Gardasil trial, Margaret Stanley – Professor of Immunology at Cambridge University who did an extensive overview in advanced immunol-ogy and vaccinology for the group. This first Masterclass incorporated 25 participants from public health, cancer control and vaccinology, and there was also representation from the Public Health Agency of Canada and the National Immunization Committee. This meeting was highly successful. It generated a number of breakout sessions to identify research priorities and immediate infrastructure necessary to support the research. Suffice it to say that the issue of a need for a vaccine registry, demonstration zones and the use of archival repository sub-specimens for potential mapping of baseline HPV demographic data were seen as important steps. In addition, the stan-dardization of HPV serology testing was necessary and there are presently four public health laboratories in the country that have this technology. There are many ongoing initiatives in many provinces to be shared later.

Next, GOC and CAIRE will be looking at continuing with the next two Master-classes on cost-effectiveness, modeling evaluation to identify the best cost-effectiveness of different cohorts and the implementation of the vaccine. The third Masterclass will focus on the integration of vaccines into screening program algorithms. The classes will follow similar formats. The goal will be to continue enabling the implementation of research necessary to evaluate population use of the vaccine. GOC will be drawing on members of the GOC Task Force on Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control for their participation in future scientific endeavors.

Other initiatives include the idea of creating a clearing house for research and education materials within the GOC and CAIRE. Dr. Susie Lau will be looking at the feasibility of this within the GOC. Several GOC members who participated in the first Masterclass are members of the GOC Task Force on Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control and other members will join subse-quent meetings.

Academic Corner

AwardsMany GOC nurse members at-tended this year’s Annual Cana-dian Association of Nurses in On-cology (CANO) conference that was held in conjunction with the 14th International Conference in Cancer Nursing in Toronto from September 27th to October 1st, 2006. Three of the eleven awards given to the conference were pre-sented to Gynecologic Oncology

Congratulations to Dr. Helen Steed who received the Alberta Cancer Board New Investigator Award/Petro Canada Young Innovator Award July 1, 2006. This award recognizes young research-ers in the first year of commencing their academic careers with financial funding ($50,000/year, re-newable for 2 years) and infrastructure support. Her research proposal focuses on studying gene expression alterations in advanced ovarian cancer patients during treatment with chemotherapy in an attempt to identify genes involved in chemo-resistance and response.

nurses who are members of our Society. Congratulations to:• Heidi Tompson from Hamilton who

was presented with the 2006 Amgen Award for Innovation, Patient/family Education

• Joanne Brodeur from Montreal who was presented with the NOCA Award of Excellence in Gyne-Onc Nursing

• Kathy Fitzgerald from Newfoundland who was presented with the Pfizer Award of Excellence in Clinical Practice

Page 8 - The GOC News

Living With HopeBy David Popkin, MD, CM, FRCSC

A program of hope research at the University of Saskatchewan, led by Dr. Wendy Duggleby, DSN, RN, presented their findings at the 16th International Conference on Care of the Terminally Ill held recently in Montreal. The multidisciplinary research team of Duggleby, DSN; Degner, PhD; Williams, PhD; Wright, PhD; Reverend Cooper, MDiv; Popkin, MD; and Holtslander, MN demonstrated how their innovative “Living with Hope Program” (LWHP) helps foster hope and increases the quality of life for older terminally ill cancer patients living at home.

The LWHP included viewing an international award-winning film produced by the research team and a Hope activity called “Stories of the Present”. The “Living with Hope” film was based on the team’s qualitative studies of hope at the end of life.

Hope is a critical component of quality palliative care and in our own professional and personal lives. The research team presented a workshop based on a case study of a patient with ovarian cancer, demonstrating how the patient and her family transformed their hope as they progressed along the course of her illness to the end of life using the LWHP and its strategies and interventions.

An evaluation of the LWHP and its psychosocial hope intervention has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.

Effective physician-patient communication at the end of life and throughout the living with cancer experience helps the patient’s understanding of the nature of his/her particular illness and its effect on the individual and the family. This under-standing may improve quality of life and increase hope at the end of life.

Gynecologic oncologists treating patients with ovarian and other gynecologic cancers can use the learnings from this research to gain better insight into the theories of hope and cost-effective hope interventions which may improve the quality of life for patients, their families and caregivers coping with gynecologic malignancies.

Cervical Cancer Program in Newfoundland

Cervical cancer prevention in Newfoundland and Labrador has had a major boost. The province has historically had rates of incidence and mortality that are far higher than Canadian averages. Annual Pap smears rates have been stable at only 35%.

Prompted by the numbers and advanced stages of disease she was treating, Dr. Lesa Dawson, Medical Director of the Cervical Cancer Screening Initiatives Program presented results of recent work aimed at improving outcomes for Newfoundland women. In a four-year review of all cervical cancer cases, Dr. Dawson and Dr. Patti Power studied the profile of the disease. They found that 60% of cases were advanced and that 80% of women had little or no screening history. Mortality rates were double those in the rest of Canada. This information was presented to the provincial government and led to a dramatic increase in program funding to $1.2 million dollars/ year. This will allow for the institution of colposcopy standardization, a recall system of ab-normal Paps, and routine use of liquid-based cytology. Nurse educators will be placed in each health region and work is underway to develop a directed recruitment system.

It is hoped that these intensive efforts will result in improved screening rates and ultimately translate into reductions in cancer incidence and mortality.

GOC’s 7th Annual Continuing Professional Development MeetingApril 27, 2007 - Toronto, OntarioPlans for the 7th Annual Continuing Professional Development Meeting are moving full steam ahead under the leadership of Dr. Diane Provencher, Chair of the CPD Committee. The meeting will be held in Toronto, Ontario on Fri-day, April 27, 2007 at the MaRS Discovery District Conference Centre.

Full details including Preliminary Program will be available in early November.

Dr. Michel Préfontaine President of NEAGOThe President of the New England Association of Gynecologic Oncologists for 2005-2006 was Dr. Michel Préfontaine. Dr. Préfontaine, member of GOC, joined NEAGO in 1993 one year after moving to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mas-sachusetts, where he is Chief of Gynecologic Oncology and a member of the Faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine. From June 9 - 11, the New England Association of Gynecologic Oncologists, or NEAGO, held their 26th Annual Scientific Meet-ing at The Equinox, in Manchester, Vermont. Dr. Préfontaine wanted to give this year’s meeting a “Canadian touch”. To that effect, he invited as presidential guest speakers three Canadian friends and colleagues. Dr. Marie Plante gave a talk on “Fertility Sparing Surgery for Early Cervical Cancer”; Dr. Denny DePetril-

lo’s talk was entitled “Living with Cancer During and After Treatment: Problems and Promises”; and Dr. Jenny Blake’s presentation was entitled “I Survived Cancer, but No One Warned me About Menopause”. Marie, Denny and Jenny’s presentations were all very well received with a very interac-tive audience. The meeting also featured abstract presenta-tions from all major training centers in New England as well as from centers without a fellowship program. The weather unfortunately did not cooperate as it rained much of the weekend, but the beautiful facilities, and excellent cocktail and dinners made up for it. All present indicated they had a very good meeting, thanks in good part to the Canadian contingent!

Vol. 6 Issue 3 - Page 9

GOC Task Force on Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control UpdateBy Joan Murphy, MD, Chair of Task Force

The first meeting of the newly formed GOC Task Force on Cervical Cancer Pre-vention and Control was held in Van-couver at the annual meeting of the Society. This Task Force was formed by the GOC Executive to provide for GOC members a forum for sharing informa-tion, ideas and opportunities for col-laboration during this period of rapid change in the prevention and control of cervical cancer and its precursors. We also intend that by coordination of our activities and expertise, we will optimize the results of our research,

education and advocacy and the con-sistency of the messages we deliver on this subject to the public, to health care providers, to government and in-dustry. The turnout at this inaugural meeting of the Task Force was highly encouraging – GOC members from across the country were in attendance representing leadership in various elements of cervical cancer control – screening, clinical practice, outcomes measurement, clinical and molecular pathology and education.

Welcome New Members!The GOC welcomes to the Society its newest members who were voted in by the membership at the June 25, 2006 Business Meeting.

Anita Agrawal, MD; Associate Category 3; Calgary, AB • Maryam AlHayki, MD; Associate Category 3; Ottawa, ON • Ayman Al-Talib, MD; Associ-ate Category 3; Montreal, QC • Enza Ambrosio, RN; Associate Category 2; Montreal, QC • Mario E. Beiner, MD; Associate Category 3; Toronto, ON • Marcus Bernardini, MD; Associate Category 3; Toronto, ON • Erin Dean, MD; Associate Category 3; Winnipeg, MB • Dominik Denschlag, MD; Associate Category 3; Montreal, QC • Kelly Drake, RN; Associate Category 2; Hamilton, ON • Valérie Dubé, MD; Associate Category 3; Québec, QC • Nour El-Etreby, MD; Associate Category 3; Montreal, QC • Abdulrahim Gari, MD; Associate Category 3; Winnipeg, MB • Levon Igidbashian, MD; Resident; Mon-treal, QC • Waldo Jiménez, MD; Associate Category 3; Toronto, ON • Marjory Jolicoeur, MD; Active; Montreal, QC • Krystine Lupe, MD; Resident; London, ON • Christophe Pomel, MD; Active; Aix en Provence, France • Joanne Power, RN; Associate Category 2; Montreal, QC • Anne Schibli, RN; Associate Category 2; Ottawa, ON • Karen Sill, RN; Associate Category 2; Vancouver, BC • Heidi Thomas, RN; Associate Category 2; Hamilton, ON • Katia Tonkin, MD; Active; Edmonton, AB • Tiffany Wells, MD; Resident; Edmonton, AB • Michael Yassa, MD; Resident; Montreal, QC

The Terms of Reference comprising the Task Force’s Goals and Objectives, Structure and Mandate have been posted on the GOC website for your review. We welcome to the Task Force new members of the Society who wish to contribute to advancing the GOC goal of reducing the burden of the cer-vix cancer and its precursors on the Ca-nadian population and on the health care system. This is a critical time in the history of risk reduction, preven-tion and treatment of this disease and

by coordinating a coherent and ratio-nal approach to the challenges and opportunities that present themselves, we will optimize both our contribu-tions and the rewards to individuals, groups and the Society.

Please feel free to nominate new members or contribute new ideas for the Task Force to the Chair, Joan Mur-phy (joan.murphy@uhn.on.ca) or via Hélène Soublière (hsoubliere@sogc.com).

Ottawa Group Secures Major Ministry of Health FundingThe Ottawa group, working with the surgical oncology team, secured a 3.5 million dollar grant to develop a model to improve access to quality cancer surgery to decrease regional surgical wait times. The team of Dr. Hartley Stern, Cathy DeGrasse, Dr. Michael Fung-Kee-Fung, Jennifer Smylie, and Greg Doiron were able to secure funding from the Ministry of Health of Ontario to evaluate a new model involving a collaboration between academic and community hospital in the Champlain region. The model involves four components:

1. The standardization of clinical care and clinical pathways for all surgical disease sites including gynaecology;2. The development of multidisciplinary tumor boards throughout the region and appropriate documentation and

feedback within CCO guidelines;3. The development of provincial and local performance data as developed by the local Surgical Oncology Site

Groups. This data will be captured based on priorities of each site group and fed back in an iterative way to promote the fourth component which is the Communities of Practice; and

4. Communities of Practice: The model involves a hub and spoke concept with diagnostic assessment units at the centre to be launched this year including thoracic, colorectal and prostate cancer initially. Breast cancer has been up and running for many years.

Most of the money will be used to evaluate this model both as a wait time strategy as well as knowledge transfer strategy. Money will also be used to identify Communities of Practice facilitators and decision support personnel within peripheral hospitals who will work to further develop the concept of Communities of Practice in terms of the quality agenda within the region. This has many implications for us and the model will potentially be used to impact other local health integrated networks within the province of Ontario.

News from OCCAnne Williams, Ovarian Cancer Canada (OCC) Manager, Awareness, has just been awarded a 2006 BlueWave Award of Ex-cellence in the category of Media Relations by the International Association of Busi-ness Communicators/BC. She called her entry: Fighting the Myth. The award comes with a trophy that will be formally presented at an IABC/BC event to be held in October 2006. Congratulations Anne!

We Want Your News!We are always looking for news to include in our newsletter. The present process involves us soliciting submissions from each Division Heads including awards, grants, recent pub-lications, and all other news of interest but there is probably more news out there that we aren’t aware of!

We encourage you to please submit your news to The GOC News team of Dr. Helen Steed (helenste@cancerboard.ab.ca) and/or Hélène Soublière (hsoubliere@sogc.com)

Page 10 - The GOC News

News from the CentresCalgary• Kristen Hoffman has completed her fellowship training and has taken a position in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Edmonton• Edmonton hosted their second NOCA Walk of Hope on September 10th. This event was organized by the local gynecologic oncologists and a committee

consisting of nurses, obstetrics and gynaecology residents, secretarial support staff and some patients. Despite a rainy day, we had a great attendance of over 280 walkers and raised $59,000 locally. Dr. Wylam Faught emceed the event and entertainment was supplied by “Men in the RAH”, a band made up of men who work at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in various areas. Many patients, families, friends, colleagues and medical students participated showing their support of women living with this disease. It was a success and a lot of fun!

Montreal• We would like to welcome Emad Sagr to our fellowship training program.• Patrick Petignat has completed his fellowship training and has returned to Switzerland to practice.

Ottawa• Dr. Laura Hopkins will be Chair of the Faculty Research Committee, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Ottawa. She is also in charge of the

Resident Journal Club for Obstetrics and Gynecology.• Dr. Tien Le has taken over as Director of the Fellowship Program for the Division of Gynecologic Oncology. A formal application has been submitted to the Royal

College.• Dr. Johanne Weberpals has taken over the multidisciplinary case conferences in gynecology and will be implementing the new Cancer Care Ontario guidelines

within the region. • Dr. Michael Fung-Kee-Fung was made honorary diva in February 2006 in his presentation to the DIVA Foundation “Cancers of the Female Reproductive Tract:

Emphasis on Prevention and Detection”, one of only two men to be made an honorary diva in the Champlain district.• Mrs. Lisa Rambout, our clinical pharmacist, has taken an eight month leave to do her Master’s in clinical epidemiology as part of further contribution to the

gynecology group.• Mrs. Lynne Jolicoeur returned from maternity leave at the end of September 2006 as Advanced Practice Nurse within the Gynecologic Oncology Program. Lynne

also completed her Master’s in Science of Nursing from the University of Ottawa in May 2006.• The Chemo Day Care nurses within our program received the Angels Award from the community for services and extraordinary compassionate care for their

work in the Chemo Day Care Unit.

Toronto• Ian Harley has completed his fellowship training and returned to Ireland where he will do one additional year of training.

Vancouver• We welcome J. Salvador Saldivar and Mona Mazgani to our fellowship training program.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR! Upcoming GOC meetings: 7th Annual Continuing Professional Development Meeting – April 27, 2007* – Toronto, ON – MaRS Discovery District Conference Centre *In conjunction with the NCIC spring meeting

28th Annual General Meeting – June 23-24, 2007*– Ottawa, ON*In conjunction with the SOGC’s Annual Clinical Meeting

Meetings of interest:• November 5-10, 2006 – FIGO World Congress – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

– www.figo.org• February 21-24, 2007 – SLS (Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons) Eu-

roAmerican MultiSpecialty Summit III Laparoscopy and Minimally Invasive Surgery – Lake Buena Vista, FL – www.sls.org

• March 3-7, 2007 – SGO Annual Meeting – San Diego, CA – www.sgo.org

• June 1-5, 2007 – American So-ciety of Clinical Oncology – Chi-cago, IL – www.asco.org

• June 21-26, 2007 – Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada 63rd Annual Clinical Meeting – Ottawa, ON – www.sogc.org

• October 28-November 1, 2007 – 15th International Meeting of the European Society of Gynae-cological Oncology – Berlin, Ger-many – www.esgo.org

Courses of interestFebruary 7-10, 2007 – The 16th Annu-al Review Course on Gynecologic On-cology and Pathology as International Symposium on Radical Hysterectomy Dedicated to Hidekazu Okabayashi with a discussion panel to reach consensus for the Method of Radical Hysterectomy and the Anatomy of Fe-male Pelvis for Radical Hysterectomy - Kyoto, Japan - www.macc.jp/radic-alhysterectomy/