XXXXI SIOP Congress Sao Paulo, Brazil

Annual General Assembly October 8, 2009

18.00 – 19.30 Commandatuba 1, 2 of the Hotel Transamerica

Minutes

1                     Welcome and Apologies for non attendance

Prof. R.M. Egeler (RME) welcomes all SIOP members present. He notes that the report of the Editor-in-Chief (item 8) will be presented as first item due to the early flight of Dr. R. Arceci.

2                     Silence for those no longer with us

All SIOP members are silent for a minute to honour the deceased members Drs. N. Auger and O. Hartmann.

3                     Minutes of the 40^th Meeting of SIOP

(a)     Corrections/Amendments

       The minutes are discussed per page. There are no comments or corrections and

       the minutes are accepted as a correct record.

(b)     Matters arising not otherwise covered in Agenda

       There are no matters to be discussed which are not listed on the agenda.

4                     Report from the President

RME lists the highlights of SIOP of the past year:

- More Council (Board + Continental Presidents) input in the following issues:

-          Annual Congress bidding process: More specified guidelines and financial requirements are now requested from members who wish to bid for having the congress in their city. This resulted in a very successful bidding process for the venue of 2012, which has become London, United Kingdom.

-          Council members will act as faculty at continental meetings in order to support the meeting. In 2010 there will be two continental meetings: SIOP Asia, Kish Island, Iran (March 3-5, 2010) and SIOP Africa, Accra, Ghana (March 10-12, 2010). The Council will also have their retreat in Accra at the time of the meeting.

-          At ASPHO 2010, Dr. K. Matthay, will organise a SIOP-ASPHO symposium on PODC.

-          SIOP Europe is working hard to register paediatric oncology in eastern Europe.

-          Oceania: In 2011 the annual congress will be held in Auckland. This is to boost paediatric oncology in this region.

-          South America: This year’s congress is a large success and the meeting is wonderful. SLAOP has also been involved.

       - Relations with other societies: SIOP has very pleasant interactions with IPSO,   

       PROS and ICCCPO. The Board is happy that all is working so well. The

       Histiocyte Society has been involved in this congress with a symposium which

       was very well attended.

       Cure 4Kids: Their website enables people to download SIOP books, seminars and 

       lectures. This has shown to be a very successful collaboration for the past years. 

       RME thanks Bharat Agarwal (BA) and Mr. Yuri Quintana of Cure4Kids.

      - Relations with Committees and Groups of SIOP: The relationship with the

      nurses is going well. The Board regularly receives brief and clear reports from the

      Nurses Committee which is very convenient and appreciated.

      The PODC Committee have submitted clearer terms of reference for their 

      committee and this will be further elaborated.

      The Psychosocial Committee and Pscycho-Oncology Group have had a meeting

       today on the possible merge of both committees. The Psycho-Oncology  

      Committee is very active in SIOP and have a newsletter updating the members on

      their activities regularly.

      The Psychosocial Group have launched a book on the guidelines produced by

       them over the years.

      The Supportive Care Group led by Marianne van de Wetering has had a very 

      successful pre-meeting and is very active in SIOP.      

- SIOP Secretariat: RME thanks Roslainde Kennis and Cynthia van Iersel of the secretariat for their assistance to the Board and other committees.

- Future of SIOP: The Board have discussed the future of the Society and have come to the conclusion that a new level of professionalism is needed in the organisation of the Society and its congresses. An executive director is needed to move to the next level and a new structure is necessary to proceed with international legal issues and fundraising. The Board will be working on this item in the next year.

- Change of the Schweisguth Prize format: The Scientific Committee Chair will talk about this in detail.

5                     Report from the Treasurer

Dr. Max Coppes (MC) presents the Treasurer’s report.

He notes that this financial year the Society made a small loss of Euro 7.507.

He shows the equity of the Society (assets minus liabilities) with a net worth of Euro 736,855 in 2009.

He presents the budget for the coming financial year 2010. In the 2010 budget there will be a deficit of Euro 111.000. This is due to higher expenses than income.

He also thanks his fellow Board members for their support and collaboration, and thanks the SIOP secretariat, R. Kennis and C. van Iersel,  and consultant Mrs. P.I. Thünte for their assistance to the Board (See also the attached documents).

6                     Report from the Scientific Committee Chairman

      Dr. Gabriele Calaminus (GC) reports on the Scientific Committee issues :

- Sao Paulo meeting: 1200 participants from 46 countries attended this meeting.

The following prizes were given to:

SIOP Awards - Translational Science:

S. Hunger and colleagues  from the United States with their presentation on:

The spectrum of mutations in childhood ALL

SIOP Awards - Clinical Trials:

H.-H. Chang and colleagues from Taiwan with their presentation on:

Notch signalling pathway is prognostic relevant and as a therapeutic target in neuroblastoma

SIOP Awards - PODC:

M. Tukenova and colleagues from France with their presentation on:

Long-term overall and cardiovascular mortality following childhood cancer: The role of cancer treatment

Fasanelli Prize

H. Jürgens and colleagues from Germany with their presentation on:

TNM Staging in Ewing sarcomas

Schweisguth prize

D. Stumpel with her manuscript on:

Specific promoter methylation identifies different subgroups of MLL-rearranged infant Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia influences clinical outcome and provides therapeutic options

- Future meetings:

Format: The Scientific Committee has changed its format and comprises now only one representative per discipline as noted in the Bylaws. In addition a Scientific Programme Advisory Committee (SPAC) has been established that consist of experts in the fields of the various diseases in paediatric oncology. They assist the Scientific Committee in providing them with ideas for congress sessions and speakers.

- SIOP 2010:

IBFM Group: Since the past two meetings the IBFM Group has joined the SIOP Congress with a symposium. This will remain a feature in the coming meeting.

ASPHO: The 2010 congress will contain a symposium co-organised by ASPHO

Schweisguth Prize: It was decided to change the guidelines of the Schweisguth Prize and to allow a manuscript which has already been published. In the past, the manuscript should not have been published before. The author is to be below 41 years of age.

- Foundation support: RME thanks all foundations that have sponsored SIOP in the congress.

7                     Report from the Secretary General

Dr. Bharat Agarwal (BA) reports on the following:

- Officers:

Board: The Board is to say goodbye to Dr. Beatriz de Camargo, LOC Chair of the SIOP 2009 congress. BA thanks Beatriz for all her hard work to make this meeting such a successful event.

BA welcomes Dr. Lisa Diller on the Board. She is the chair of the LOC of SIOP 2010, Boston, U.S.

Scientific Committee:

At this meeting Dr. Rolf Kortmann ends his 1^st term of 3 years as PROS representative. He will continue for a second term so will not leave the Scientific Committee.

Dr. R. Pieters has been chosen as the new Chair of the Scientific Committee as per after the Boston Congress. As Dr. Pieters will have then already have done 2 terms of 3 years each as Scientific Committee representative, BA asks the members if they accept Dr. Pieters as the new chair, thus enabling him to do a third term on this Committee. The membership approves this request.

Continental Presidents:

In Boston, the terms of the following Continental presidents will end:

Oceania, Dr. Scott Macfarlane; Asia, Dr. Purna Arun Kurkure; Africa, Dr. Janet Poole.

BA notes that the members can put themselves up for standing for these positions.

- Membership:

New members:  The current membership was 1443 members. During 2009 and here in Sao Paulo 130 new applications were received. BA asks for the approval of the membership to accept these 130 new members. The membership approves this.

Resigned members: 6 members resigned from the society in 2009

Deceased members: As already noted, 2 members died in 2009.

- Future meeting venues: For 2013 Asia is the meeting continent. For 2014 North America is the venue. In the newsletter it will be noted that in order to submit a bid to host the congress, letters of intent are to be submitted by February 1 2010 for Asia, and by February 2011 for North America.

- Newsletter: The deadline for articles for the December newsletter issue is November 1, 2009. For the July 2010 issue, the deadline is 1 May 2010.

- Educational activities: Website: The SIOP website was renovated in 2009 and has now a new feature, an interactive forum. In addition there will also be a gallery where pictures will be presented of the congresses and other activities by SIOP.

Educational book: This year another educational book has been made of the keynote lectures and state of the art lectures. It can be seen on the SIOP website and on the Cure4Kids website.

Education and Training Task Force: This was established in 2008 and this Task Force had its first meeting today. Its objective is to provide educational activities outside the congress. 

8                     Report from the Editor in Chief  of “Pediatric Blood and Cancer”

Dr. Robert Arceci (RA) reports on the following :

PBC page budget has increased.

The turnaround time from submission to publication has also increased and is around 17,5 days. The Reviewer turnaround time is 17,9 days.

PBC Contents: The overall acceptance rate is 50%. The most submitted articles are brief reports in the field of oncology

Abstract book: Apart from the regular issues, the 2009 abstract book has been produced as a PBC issue again. Apart from the SIOP abstracts, PBC also publishes abstracts for the IPSO, ASPHO and Histiocyte Society meetings.

Online usage: still increasing profoundly

PBC Impact Factor: The 2008 impact factor is 2.394. Compared to the former years it is still rising.

RA shows overviews on submission by country, most cited  articles and most downloaded articles, list of competing journals and journal rankings in various fields.

PODC: Upon request of subscribers who receive more than one PBC copy, Wiley sends these additional copies to people from developing countries. More of such requests are still needed.

9                     SIOP 2010 Boston Announcement of Meeting Plans

Dr. L. Diller (LD) announces the SIOP 2010 congress. It is from October 21 to 24, 2010. The website is www.siopboston2010.com. RME notes that people can already register and are now paying the very early bird fees, which are valid up to March 1, 2010.

10                  SIOP 2011 Auckland, New Zealand – Preliminary Announcement of Meeting

RME is happy to announce that the dates of the congress will be close to the dates of the world cup of rugby! He is thus especially looking forward to going there.   

11                  SIOP 2012 – Result of Council Election for Venue

The 2012 venue for 2012 will be London, United Kingdom.

12            Venue for 2013 – Asia (deadline for letter of intent February 1, 2010)

13          Venue for 2014 – North America - Call for Bids (deadline for letter of intent February 1, 2011)

RME notes that members of these continents are welcome to submit a bid. Guidelines can be requested at the secretariat. 

14            Any Other Business

There is no other business from the Board. Prof. H. Caron asks the treasurer to present at the next meeting a 5-year budget. In the current treasurer’s report it is more an evaluation of the past instead of a future strategy or plan. MC is in favour of such a request and notes that this will be worked upon.

15            Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be in Boston, U.S. The date is to be announced.