2019 ANZUP ASM

from ANZUP Annual Report 2020

Below the Belt Research Fund

ANZUP ASM 2019: David Pryor

While we were set a very high benchmark on the back of our 2018 ASM, I think thanks to an outstanding Convening Committee and Faculty, we managed to deliver, yet again, a high quality and innovative program that had something for everyone!

The theme ‘Making Connections’, was more relevant than ever bringing together a superb line up of international and national speakers under the one roof . It was also a great opportunity for people to connect with their peers, catch up with old colleagues and make new friends .

Over the three days, we were treated to the most up to date scientific presentations from our impressive international faculty: Kelly Parsons, Phuoc Tran, Alison Birtle, Catherine Paterson and Betsy Plimack who shared their insights and experience with more than 400 attendees .

The ASM kicked off with an array of pre-conference meetings on Sunday including the ANZUP PCFA Nurses Symposium, the Translational Research Symposium and the MDT Masterclass . We are very grateful to all the chairs for their efforts in delivering such thought provoking sessions .

On Sunday we also held our annual free Community Engagement Forum featuring presentations and panel discussions covering quality of life, treatment choices, survivorship, impacts on intimacy and the cost of cancer care . This forum gave the public the opportunity to engage with an experienced team of healthcare professionals and patient advocates, while learning about ANZUP and our clinical trials research program .

The day concluded with another excellent ANZUPx session, which we introduced at our ASM in 2018 . This year Jane Turner gave us a thought provoking talk on “Touching the humanity: making authentic connections” followed by Declan Murphy entertaining us with some insights into avoiding obsolescence as a cancer surgeon . The evening symposium was thoroughly entertaining . With the theme ‘The Art of Connecting’ we heard from our gifted faculty Kelly Parsons, an award-winning author, Alasdair Foster, Professor of Culture in Community and finally Alison Birtle treating us to her rendition of Send in the Clowns showing us how connecting through creativity can help with the stresses of work / life demands while caring for our cancer patients .

The Scientific Program on Monday and Tuesday involved close to 50 presentations, including a very interesting and stimulating discussion at the Tuesday breakfast session: ‘Is Social Media Worth the Risk for Healthcare Professionals’, ably chaired by Haryana Dhillon and featuring Henry Woo, Craig Gedye, Belinda Jago and the ever delightful social media expert Josh Britt .

Attendees were also fortunate to hear from ANZUP Chair and ENZAMET Co-Chair Ian Davis share the ENZAMET results, as presented at the ASCO plenary session in June 2019 . The ANZUP-led trial showed a 33% improvement in overall survival and a 60% improvement in progressionfree survival, for men with metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer who received enzalutamide in addition to the standard of care therapy (androgen deprivation therapy, ADT), with or without docetaxel chemotherapy .

This year we saw our Twitter engagement reach close to 2 .8 million #ANZUP19 impressions and over 1,600 tweets – with Haryana Dhillon, Ian Davis and Henry Woo as key social media influencers. Attendance was impressive with close to 400 delegates – all testament to the high quality, collegial, educational, entertaining ASM for which ANZUP has become renowned .

Thank you to every speaker, sponsor, chair, delegate, participant, committee member and organiser for your contribution . We look forward to seeing you in Adelaide for #ANZUP21 .

Associate Professor David Pryor ANZUP 2019 ASM Convenor