The British Orthopaedic Oncology Society (BOOS) update

Tom Cosker, BOOS President

The British Orthopaedic Oncology Society has had another very successful year and held its annual general meeting in Cardiff at the end of June. For the first time, we held the meeting over a full two days with day one dedicated to the treatment of metastatic disease. We held a number of interesting talks including the treatment of metastatic disease around the pelvis, hip, knee, foot and ankle as well as the upper limb with a talk about the challenges of operating around the shoulder and proximal humerus. Lead clinicians for metastatic disease were encouraged to attend across the UK and to consider how they can implement / grow / extend their provision for the treatment of MBD in their local areas. With an increasingly elderly population, this is likely to grow exponentially and it is vital that local Trusts properly support this important problem with dedicated time for a consultant-led service.

We discussed the challenge of the unknown primary and the issues around the orthopaedic surgeon often being the first to see such patients. After a very successful Conference dinner the Conference moved on to its core meeting which focused on the traditional themes of Basic Science, Arthroplasty and Operative Intervention, New Advances and Techniques and future directions in research. We awarded prizes for Best Presentation, Best Poster, Best Young Investigator and the Takeshi Takeshima prize for Basic Science which is awarded annually in memory of a young histopathologist in Oxford who sadly died of the disease in which he was an expert, Osteosarcoma, at the young age of 37. We also ran, for the first time, at conference this year, an Education Day for trainees which was well attended and aimed to give candidates a flavour of the type of questions which will be asked in the FRCS (Tr and Orth) examination.

The Society continues to be vigorous and active and welcomes new members. We will launch our Diploma in Orthopaedic Oncology accredited by the Royal College of Surgeons of England for its second diet in September 2024 and interested applicants should contact Professor Tom Cosker at Thomas.cosker@ouh.nhs.uk. We look forward to another successful conference in Dublin next year!