Agoura Hills, Cedars-Sinai and on to Houston!

On March 26, the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation held its second annual Patient Education Seminar at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles! What a great day – We kicked-off the morning with the Great Race of Agoura Hills. Despite the chaos at the start I was able to meet up with Team Foster and Team Kaatz. Don Foster and his brother were fast but thankfully we caught up with them before the event for a photo. I also met up with Alan Kaatz who led a 20+person team all walking in loving memory of Mary Kaatz. See below for more information on Mary Kaatz; to date this team has raised nearly $7,000 for cutting-edge research!http://www.firstgiving.com/livestrongmary

After spending the morning running up a mountain we headed over to Thalians Auditorium for the Second Annual Caring for Carcinoid Foundation / Cedars-Sinai Patient Education Seminar. The Seminar began with a tribute to the memory of Nickolette Way and Carol Young. Corri Ramirez, Nickolette's daughter, and Ed Meaney, Carol's husband, joined me as we dedicated the seminar. Please click here to see the tribute page for Nickolette Way, and click here for the tribute page for Carol Young.

The Seminar included talks from Edward Wolin, MD, Fe San Angel, RN, ONC; Steven Colquhoun, MD, FACS; and Marc Friedman, MD. Following the talks we added a novel component this year – three Interactive Multi-disciplinary Case Studies. These discussions included the speakers from above as well as Farin Amersi, MD, FACS; Run Yu, MD, PhD; and Simon Lo, MD. Dr. Wolin served as the moderator and really kept his team on their toes! It was enlightening to see how this group worked together to diagnosis and treat patients and a lot of nuances really came through.

We ended the day with an amazing guided meditation to the music of Giovanna Imbesi, http://www.generatepossibility.org/.

Patients – let me know what you think! Did you enjoy the case discussions? How can we improve upon the format for next year? Email me at Lauren.erb@caringforcarcinoid.org.

Houston Area Patients: its not too late to sign-up for CFCF’s second patient education event of 2010 at MD Anderson on April 30th. Visit our website for more information or to register: http://www.caringforcarcinoid.org/fundraising/Houston2010.asp.

The conference will include presentations, question and answer sessions and panel discussions all focused on providing patients with a comprehensive understanding of neuroendocrine tumor treatment options. Topics that will be covered are: Determining the Best Surgical Approach for Neuroendocrine Tumor Patients, Current and Upcoming Clinical Trials, Understanding Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT), the Role of Radioembolization and more!

Thanks to all of our Houston area patients that came out for the 2010 SCOPE Race - over 125 people joined our team captain, Jan Peine, to raise over $13,000 for MD Anderson's Participation in the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation Neuroendocrine Tumor Biobank.

I hope to see you there!