Last month, doctors, scientists, patients, and family members from around the world gathered in Boston for the Fourth International Chordoma Research Workshop and Community Conference.
Highlights from the Research Workshop
- More than 100 participants from nine countries participated, a 30% increase from 2011
- 28 presentations and 18 posters on new, unpublished data
- Six pharmaceutical and biotech companies in attendance, reflecting a growing sense of opportunity to translate discoveries into new therapies for this orphan disease
- Three new clinical trials are planned that will soon open to chordoma patients
- Several drugs were found to stabilize or shrink chordoma tumors in mice
- New chordoma cell lines, mouse models and zebrafish models are being developed, which will enable more compounds to be tested
- The first clinical practice guidelines for chordoma were presented, accomplishing a goal identified at the first research workshop
- Plans were discussed for developing an international patient registry to track patient outcome and quality of life over time and more accurately determine the benefits of various therapies
Highlights from the Community Conference
- More than 70 patients, family members, and friends from as far away as Romania participated
- Participant questions were answered by six expert physicians
- Research updates were presented by leading chordoma scientists
- Sessions were offered on nutrition and cancer, patient navigation, parenting with chordoma, scanxiety, the skill of happiness, and more
Thank You to Our Sponsors
The Chordoma Foundation is deeply grateful to the individuals, organizations, and companies whose support made the Research Workshop and Community Conference possible.
Research Workshop Sponsors
Gold Sponsor
NIH Office of Rare Diseases Research
Silver Sponsors
National Cancer Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
UPMC Center for Cranial Base Surgery
Bronze Sponsors
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
MGH Cancer Center
MGH Department of Orthopaedics
MGH Department of Pathology
MGH Harris Center for Chordoma Care
NCI Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics
Sanofi
Community Conference Sponsors
Gold Sponsor
Genentech
Individual Sponsors
Joel and Shari Beckman
Heather Lee and Steve Straus
Jeffrey Nadaner
Karen and Gary Sain
Michael Torrey