Since 2003, GEIS gathers all the specialists interested in sarcomes on an annual symposium. Year after year, we have seen how attendance grows constantly.
It is impossible to overstate the importance and the stimulus that means for us to see hundreds of people deeply engaged during 48 intensive hours in the different aspects of sarcomas. Scientific sessions take place from 8 in the morning to late afternoon; but the importance of the coexistence, lunch and dinner, the casual exhange of ideas, experiences and occassional frustrations is not negligible. More than a few mature GEIS projects had their origin during an exchange of emails right next to the refreshments table, between conferences.
We usually devote each meeting to a specific topic, for example, osteosarcomas, surgery or basic research. We try to summarize in a few days all the knowledge (including doubts!) around the chosen subject.
But GEIS symposiums fulfill a nice amount of tasks:
- On each of them we invite several foreign speakers among the most prominent every year on sarcoma research. This way, we disclose our activities beyond our borders and build cooperation bridges. Almost all the important figures in the world of European and American oncology have been present in our symposium. In the future, we plan to open a great gate to the realm of Latin American oncology.
- At the beginning, only oncologists attended our symposiums. Little by little, we have managed to attract surgeons of different specialties, pathologists, laboratory researchers, pediatricians, radiotherapy oncologists and radiologists. Ours is the only Spanish forum where it is present this prolific mixture of sarcoma specialists. Since 2009, representatives of those affected also attend, something that also makes us proud.
- Procuramos que la reunión anual del GEIS tenga la mayor repercusión mediática posible. De este modo, procuramos darnos a conocer al público general.
- The yearly GEIS symposium call upon specialists already heavily involved in sarcoma issues. However, we have seen how it was increasingly attended by resident doctors, (MIR, graduates on specialization studies), looking for an education on sarcoma, that given the rarity of the disease, could not be found on their teaching programmes. The GEIS board of directors took note of this fact and understood it as a demand of the resident community that needed to be fulfilled. The GEIS symposium is still open to all training doctors that wish to attend. However, it was decided to convene another annual meeting, on a more basic level and more training-oriented. exclusively designed for residents. It is the Sarcoma Advanced Course, taking place every year in Alcalá de Henares. the first edition took place on June 2009.
- Alt the ending of each symposium the GEIS General Assembly takes place. During it all members gather, and the members of the Board of Directors render account of the result of the activity of that year, from funding to sicentific publications, from the established international relations to the ongoing clinical trials, from the results of the granted scholarships to those acts that can be considered as failures and that we wish to improve on. the plans for the next course are presented, notes are taken about commendations, critics and suggestions, and if needed according to the regulations, the posts on the Board of Directors are reinstated.
- The Board of Directors meets several times a year. Sometimes in person, others through videoconference, many times taking advantage of congresses and gatherings on which we converge. However, the most importaqnt meeting of the year takes place the day before the symposium starts. On it the most important decisions are taken, as budget distribution, the approval of new members, or the outline of new clinical trials.
- Finally, we try to match up the symposium with the grant of the Conmemorative José María Buesa Scholarship. This scholarship intends to offer independent funding for the most promising research projects about knowledge and treatment of sarcomas. GEIS symposiums called until now are the following:
- Palma Mallorca, April 4th and 5th 2003
- Baiona, March 26th and 27th 2004
- Sitges, November 4th and 5th 2005
- Granada, December 1st and 2nd 2006
- Oviedo, November 16th and 17th 2007
- Madrid, November 7th and 8th 2008
- Tenerife, November 13th and 14th 2009
- Salamanca, November 5th and 6th 2010
- Valencia, November 25th and 26th 2011
- Zaragoza, November 30th and December 1st 2012
- Sevilla, November 29th 2013
- Madrid, November 21th and 22th 2014
- Barcelona, November 20th 2015
