Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite selected to chair ESMO 2024
Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite, Medical Oncology Consultant at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, has been selected to Chair the Investigational Immunotherapy track for ESMO Congress 2024.
ESMO Congress is the biggest oncology conference in Europe and amongst the most high-profile oncology platform for clinicians, researchers, patient advocates, journalists and healthcare industry representatives from all over the world. The 2024 congress anticipates welcoming around 30,000 attendees to Barcelona in September 2024.
Fiona has supported previous ESMO Congresses as part of the subcommittee for Immunotherapy, but for the 2024 Congress she will join the main congress scientific steering committee as track chair. She was nominated following on from her work she has done on the subcommittee.
Fiona will be tasked with helping to nominate the subcommittee members and determine the content of the educational aspect of the programme. Additionally, she will be responsible for reviewing and ranking nominated abstracts to determine proffered papers, mini orals or posters for the congress.
This is the first time I've held this type of leadership role at a European level and it is a great opportunity to represent the research community in Manchester. The role is important in uniting a significant range of researchers from different countries and also in creating visibility for all the research that is and will be going on as we approach the conference in 2024.
Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite
Fiona will be looking out for developments in experimental immunotherapy that will still be hot topics in 18 months’ time. She predicted this may be research on things such as ‘bispecific antibodies’ or ‘T cell engager molecules’, and specifically looking at how these new treatments are being delivered to patients.
When asked what advice she would give to someone who is joining the ESMO subcommittee, Fiona replied: “Try and get as much information beforehand as you can. Attend the calls and go into them well-prepared so you are able to speak-up as much as possible.
“When reviewing abstracts, write a one-line summary of each as you go along. This will enable you to rank them efficiently and qualify your ranking with a reason that can be easily referred back to.
“Finally, during the committee calls don’t be afraid to self-nominate. If there is an opportunity to speak or to chair a session and you feel you are qualified to do it then put yourself forward. This is by far the most effective way to get your name and relevant research out there.”
