On March 22-26, 2019, the International Society of Ocular Oncology (ISOO) Conference was held in Marina del Rey, Los Angeles. ISOO is a non-profit organization which promotes the practice of ocular oncology which is a strong and independent subspecialty of ophthalmology with specific focus on eye tumors and cancers.
On Monday March 25th, ISOO’s program was focused on retinoblastoma. This allows clinicians, scientists, and trainees to share their research with an international audience. In that audience, the Canadian Retinoblastoma Research Advisory Board (CRRAB) was well-represented. Below are some examples of their participation:
Ivana Ristevski is a “Parent-in-Research.” She has been a member of CRRAB since 2017, where she participated in the priority setting project which led to the creation of the Top 10. Since 2018, she has also been member of the retinoblastoma team at The Hospital for Sick Children through her role as Clinical Research Project Coordinator.
At ISOO, Ivana delivered a poster and talk titled, “Top 10 Retinoblastoma Priorities: As Determined by Canadian Patients, Clinicians, and Researchers.” Ivana’s poster received the “Best Poster” award for the retinoblastoma program of the conference. Congratulations, Ivana!
Dr. Brenda Gallie (right) pictured with Dr. Linn Murphree (left) after her inaugural Murphree Lecture at ISOO 2019. Drs. Gallie and Murphree received the Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research, honoring their collaboration on the genetics of vision disease, in June 2018.
Dr. Brenda Gallie was invited to deliver the inaugural A. Linn Murphree Lecture at the conference. Her presentation was titled, Linn’s Legacy: Bright Future for Retinoblastoma. Dr. Gallie presented the results of two case studies where chemoplaque was used as a novel approach to treat retinoblastoma after failure of first-line treatments.
Dr. Dimaras (right) and Max Gelkopf (left) in front of Max’s poster titled, “The Canadian Research Advisory Board: A Framework for Patient Engagement.”
Dr. Helen Dimaras presented the results of her comprehensive, retrospective review of clinically preventable causes of unfavourable retinoblastoma treatment outcomes at the Hospital for Sick Children from 2000 to 2015. Information gained by examining these events can identify areas for practice change and improve patient outcomes.
Max Gelkopf, a member of our group since 2017, shared the results of a research study that was used to determine whether CRRAB is an effective vehicle for engaging patients in retinoblastoma research. The findings suggest that CRRAB offers meaningful patient engagement.
While we highlight the activities of our CRRAB members in this article,
please click here if you’re interested in reading about all of the wonderful oral and poster presentations offered at ISOO 2019.