New CEEGOG leadership and establishment of the CEEGOG Scientific committee, December 2019

The election of new CEEGOG leadership was conducted at the CEEGOG meeting held in Prague on December 13, 2019. The new CEEGOG leadership consists of the following representatives: Chair DAVID CIBULA (General University Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic); Vice-Chair FILIP FRÜHAUF (General University Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic); Financial Manager MIKULÁŠ REDECHA (UH Bratislava, Slovakia), and Controller MAJA PAKIŽ (University Medical Centre Maribor, Slovenia). 

Article 13 of the newly approved CEEGOG Bylaws stipulates the setting up of the Scientific committee consisting of 5 members, each one of them from a different Center, representing at least 4 countries. Its main role is to review applications and decide on the selection of candidates for scientific appointments (i.e. representation at ENGOT sub-groups, GCIG working groups, etc.) together with the CEEGOG officers. The following representatives were elected to be members of the first CEEGOG Scientific committee: MARCIN STANISLAW BOBIŃSKI; Medical Uniwersity of Lublin, Poland; ZOLTÁN NOVÁK; Hungarian National Oncological Institute, Budapest, Hungary; ANDREI PLETNEV; N.N. Alexandrov National Cancer Center of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus; VLADYSLAV SUKHIN; Grigoriev Institute for Medical Radiology, Kharkov, Ukraine; MICHAL ZIKÁN; Hospital Na Bulovce, Prague, Czech Republic.

Congratulations to the newly elected officers and Scientific committee members! We look forward to our close cooperation! We hope that CEEGOG under the new leadership, and with the help of the newly elected Scientific members, will continue in its gradual development, and all CEEGOG countries and sites will be involved in our research activities and clinical trials.

GCIG Fall meeting in Athens, October 31 – November 1, 2019

The GCIG Fall meeting was held in Athens October 31 -  November 1, 2019, together with the Symptom Benefit Brainstorming Session. The sessions focused on Quality of Life issues pertaining to immunotherapy and maintenance therapy, Age-specific Quality of Life and related issues in gynecologic malignancies, Survivorship Quality of Life and related issues, and Advancing methodology. CEEGOG was represented by Dr. Vladyslav Shukin (Ukraine) and Dr. Aleksandra Strojna (Poland). 

The GCIG Young Investigators program was conducted within the GCIG fall meeting as well. The aim of the program was to foster the involvement of more young investigators within the GCIG. A satellite session targeted key elements of trial design and execution: scientific justification, design, statistics, PRO endpoints, data integrity, and international cooperation. CEEGOG was represented by Dr. Filip Frühauf (Czech Republic). 

Dr. Vladyslav Sukhin, Dr. Aleksandra Strojna and Dr. Filip Frühauf also participated in the main GCIG session together with the CEEGOG Chairman Prof. David Cibula and the administrative manager Mrs. Ivana Nohová on November 1, 2019. The GCIG ongoing and planned trials were introduced and discussed  there. Prof. David Cibula delivered a talk about the planned CEEGOG CX-05/CERVANTES ​trial (a prospective randomized trial ​on the role of radical surgery and adjuvant therapy​ in the management of intermediate / high risk​ cervical cancer patients) whose design was then consulted not only at the GCIG meeting but also at the ESGO congress held in Athens on November 2-5, 2019.  

GCA in Madrid on October 18-19, 2019

The 12th Gynaecological Cancer Academy  workshop followed the ENGOT meeting in Madrid in October 18-19, 2019. CEEGOG was represented by Dr. Vít Weinberger (UH Brno, Czech Republic). 

The first day focused on cervical, endometrial, ovarian, vulvar cancers and rare tumors with endeavour for identification of important questions which are necessary to stipulate in the identifying need to design any clinical trial for the respective diagnosis. The Pharma representatives delivered presentations on their procedures and needs in case they consider a clinical trial for the respective clinical topic. 

The second day logically followed up on the previous day´s topics with presentations on biostatistics, key-stones of planning clinical trials phase I, II, III. Dr. Weinberger found the workshop very informative because it showed the direction our CEEGOG sites need to follow. It will certainly take longer to accomplish.

ENGOT meeting in Madrid, October 17 – 18, 2019

On October 17 - 18, 2019, a meeting of representatives of the twenty-one national trial groups was held in Madrid. CEEGOG was represented by its Chairman Prof. David Cibula and the administrative manager Mrs. Ivana Nohová. 

The Engot Operational Representatives’ meeting focused on the ENGOT documents to be updated and the country fees related to clinical trials.  

The main topic of the ENGOT assembly meeting dealt with trial activities and the status of ENGOT trials. The ENGOT collaborative groups´representatives were also updated on the CEEGOG/ENGOT trials, i.e. ABRAX, SENTIX and FERTISS. Prof. Cibula presented new substantial information regarding the Vitalia/SOV09/ ENGOT-ov53 trial where CEEGOG is the leading group. 

For more information, you are welcome to contact the CEEGOG office. 

CEEGOG meeting in Prague on December 13, 2019

The final date of the CEEGOG meeting was set for December 13, 2019, which will be held in Prague at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the General University Hospital in Prague for one day. We will be happy to include proposals for new collaborative trials as suggested by you. Should you like to share some information on your projects and proposal studies with other CEEGOG members, kindly let us know by November 15.

All your colleagues and study coordinators are cordially welcome as well. We would like to ask for confirmation of your participation by October 15.

The invitation card and further details will be sent out in the near future.

We look forward to meeting with all of you at the scheduled CEEGOG meeting.

Election of new CEEGOG leadership, August 2019

Pursuant to the the BYLAWS of CEEGOG, new leadership must be elected every 5 years.

As the time of first electoral term is over, the election of the new Chair, Vice-chair, Financial manager and Controller will be conducted at the forthcoming CEEGOG meeting.

In case you are interested in one of the positions mentioned above and/or want to nominate and recommend someone else, please send your CV and/ or nomination to the CEEGOG office by November 15. Thank you in advance.

CEEGOG Representatives in ENGOT projects, August 2019

CEEGOG representatives in ENGOT projects should be replaced after a certain period of time. Currently, position are open for new candidates in the Phase I/II group and in the GCA (Gyne Cancer Academy).

Phase I/II group aims at the development of a network of early phase trial centres and investigators within ENGOT to deliver early phase clinical trials with strong scientific rationale, and to develop novel trial designs that allow efficient assessment of new compounds and make it feasible to also investigate rare histological and molecular subtypes.

GCA- educative workshops aim at the training and development of the next generation of leaders in gynaecological oncology. The experienced physicians in gynecology oncology prepare programs and lead the disscussion. Topics targeted the effective clinical trial design and collaboration, implementation, conduct and analysis within the ENGOT framework. Participants are experienced investigators who are not yet fully in a position to lead cooperative groups but have the potential to adopt this role in the future.

GCIG Spring meeting in Chicago, May 29-30, 2019

The GCIG Spring meeting was held in Chicago on May 29-30, 2019. The CEEGOG Chairman represented CEEGOG at the meeting and introduced there the planned CEEGOG trial on the role of radical surgery and adjuvant treatment in the management of intermediate / high risk patients with early stage cervical cancer (Sedlis 2020).  

ENGOT meeting in Frankfurt, March 21-22, 2019

The spring ENGOT meeting took place in Frankfurt am Main, on March 21-22.

The administrative meeting highlighted the following topics: mentoring, BREXIT and Sponsor/ legal representative in EU, trial budget, pharmacovigilance survey, sharing group resources, General Data Protection Regulation.

The ENGOT Chair, Antonio González Martín, gave update on the ongoing trials where he also informed on the CEEGOG trials: ABRAX, FERTISS and SENTIX. David Cibula update on the SOV09/VITALIA trial with dendritic cells in patients with advanced ovarian cancer (sponsor Sotio).

Discussions were held on the ENGOT strategic group, establishment of a trial support office, biobank project, and COST program. Antonio González Martín mentioned the new clinical trial section in the IJGC. ENGOT is going to prepare a list of trials that could be published there.

Voting on election of new chairs was conducted. Both Maren Keller from NOGGO for the operational group and Mansoor Raza Mirza for the medical doctors were approved unanimously.

Thirteen countries in CEEGOG, November 2018

As the center Institute of Oncology of Moldova was approved as a new CEEGOG member at the CEEGOG meeting held in November 2018, currently CEEGOG has centers in 13 countries, i.e.  the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, Ukraine, Hungary, Belarus, Georgia, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Romania and the Republic Moldova. Welcome to collaboration!