Special thanks to Dr Giulia Martina Cavestro and Fondazione Internazionale Menarini for organizing and hosting the 2022 Early Onset Colorectal Cancer (eoCRC) DIRECt meeting in Milan, Italy on September 1 & 2.
The 2022 DIRECt meeting program was created in close collaboration between global experts and in particular, Dr Giulia Cavestro, meeting president with Drs Swati Patel, CGA; Gabriela Möslein, EHTG; and Cristina Oliani, AIFET being the meeting co-presidents and who also happen to be the current presidents of their respective society. The CGA-IGC president, Dr Patel is seen here giving her opening remarks.
More than 80 key multidisciplinary opinion leaders from the global Hereditary GI Cancer community came together to build international consensus on best practices and knowledge updates which will drive the care and treatment of individuals with early onset colorectal cancer. CGA members and leaders were instrumental parts of this effort. Dr. Sonia Kupfer, CGA Past President, chaired the working group tasked with addressing questions about diagnosis of eoCRC. Professor Heather Hampel, also a CGA past president, chaired the group who tackled genetics of eoCRC.
What made this event special was that the presence of the patient voice through Marianna Vitaloni providing the EU perspective and Anjee Davis the US perspective.
The incidence of colorectal cancer before the age of 50 is increasing. Patients with early-onset colorectal cancer (eoCRC) are managed according to CRC guidelines that are not specific for this age group.
By 2030 the most common cause of cancer-related death in the 20-40 age group will be colorectal cancer. This requires some rethinking from the multidisciplinary medical team about how we treat and care for this specific group of patients, but it also calls for change at the political level, to ensure that at risk individuals with early onset cancer have access to services that will allow them to get the appropriate treatment and care early ensuring the best possible outcome.
The DIRECt group produced 28 statements in 7 areas of interest: diagnosis, screening, genetics, pathology-oncology, endoscopy, therapy, and end-stage disease. These are the first evidence-based consensus recommendations on eoCRC.
CGA-IGC together with its members are proud to continue being a key contributor to this partnership together with our colleagues from InSiGHT, EHTG, LAGETH and other key experts from within the global Hereditary GI cancer community. Moving forward, CGA-IGC will incorporate the real-world evidence from these statements in its educational efforts enabling members access to the latest and best information to treat their patients.
We're pleased to share some tweets from the meeting participants.
