8th Annual Agi Hirshberg Symposium on Pancreatic Cancer. January 31, 2012
JANUARY 31, 2012
This year’s meeting was held at the UCLA Faculty Center on January 31, 2012 with the support of the unrestricted educational grants from Amgen, Genetech and Celgene. We had participants from regional and national scientists and physicians as well as patients and family support groups.
The meeting was opened by Ms. Agi Hirshberg, CEO and founder of the Hirshberg Foundation, by reviewing the accomplishments of the Foundation in research, patient care, and education over their fifteen year history. She highlighted the seed grant program in particular, which is now in its 8th year. It started with 15 national applicants and has since expanded to 44 national and international applications this year.
Many national research programs have received and participated in the seed program and they are listed on the Foundation’s website (www.pancreatic.org). She congratulated this year’s 6 awardees who presented their work at the scientific portion during the morning program.
Dr. Go then thanked Ms. Agi Hirshberg and congratulated her for the success of her seed grant program, but also thanked her and her foundation’s contribution to UCLA’s pancreatic cancer research, clinical practice and education programs. Without the Foundation’s support, we would not have achieved the comprehensive program that now exists at UCLA (pancreas.ucla.edu).
This year’s scientific session was chaired by Dr. Go for the first half and by Dr. Howard Reber during the second half. The invited speakers were the awardees of this year’s Foundation seed grants including Dr. David Gius from Vanderbilt Medical School, Dr. Stephen Kendall from Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Andrea Bullock from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dr. Emmanuelle Meuillet from the University of Arizona Cancer Center, Dr. Pamela Itkin-Ansari from the University of California San Diego, and Dr. Yung-Ya Lin from the University of California Los Angeles. The highlights of their presentations are included in this newsletter.
The scientific section was followed by the patient and family session was started with opening remarks given by Dr. A. Eugene Washington, Vice Chancellor of Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine. The invited speakers included Dr. Charles Brunicardi from the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center, Dr. Diane Simeone from the University of Michigan, Dr. Melbern Wilcox from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Dr. Thomas Strouse from the University of California Los Angeles. Their presentations focused on the exciting concepts of pancreatic cancer stem cells, personalized medicine, advances and approaches to endoscopic diagnosis and palliative management of patients with pancreatic cancer. This year’s program also included workshops focused on patient and family support, genetic counseling, and cancer legal resources.
As in previous years, this year’s symposium was enriched by twelve poster presentations conducted by the investigators at the Hirshberg Laboratory for Pancreatic Cancer Research, the UCLA Center for Excellence in Pancreatic Diseases, the VA of Greater Los Angeles Health Care System, the LA BioMed Institution and the Southern California Research Center for Alcoholic Liver and Pancreatic Diseases. The scientific communities and the patients and family support groups are extremely grateful to the Foundation’s continued support to their education and research missions. Congratulations for a very successful symposium.
The full recap can be found here: 8th Annual Agi Hirshberg Symposium Recap