The Laughlin Family Foundation Sponsors Inaugural Endometrial Cancer Symposium At Johns Hopkins Hospital
The Laughlin Family Foundation Sponsors the Inaugural Endometrial Cancer Symposium: How Preventative and Precision- Based Approaches Will Improve Patient Outcomes at Johns Hopkins Hospital on July 29-30, 2022
The Inaugural Endometrial Cancer Symposium, sponsored by The Laughlin Family Foundation, was the first symposium of its kind held at Johns Hopkins Hospital on July 29th and 30th 2022. It brought together many of the best health experts and doctors in the world to educate the community, doctors, nurses, and patient advocates on the best practices and treatment options for endometrial cancers. Over 200 people from over 14 countries participated in the weekend presentations either in person or via zoom.
Presentations given by various doctors from across the world helped identity epidemiologic trends in endometrial cancer incidence and mortality, risk factors for the disease, and strategies for prevention. Doctors shared their knowledge on the latest endometrial research findings, and how the role of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy can be incorporated into endometrial treatments practices with a goal of optimizing patients survival and minimizing morbidity. Doctors also collaborated and outlined at least 10 new research projects, as well as developed 2-3 white papers from the weekend.
“Several oncologists and internal medicine doctors who registered for the conference mentioned that they learned so much about endometrial cancer and had no idea it was such a public health problem for women…and a number of trainees in oncology fields thanked us for providing education that their training programs are not providing,” said Dr. Amanda Nickles Fader, Vice Chair of Gynecologic Surgical Operations, Johns Hopkins Health System and Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics, who put together this symposium and presented on uterine serous carcinoma.
The Laughlin Family Foundation granted Johns Hopkins and Dr. Fader with $100,000 to help fund this project. Endometrial cancer is one of the fastest growing malignancies in women, and one of the only in which incidence and mortality are rising at an alarming rate. In 2022, the American Cancer Society reported that death rates from women diagnosed with endometrial cancer are now neck and neck with ovarian cancer, largely due to rising incidence of aggressive and rare subtypes. This can be attributed to limited research, late detection, and little clinical and patient knowledge on these cancers. This is a tremendous public health problem for women worldwide. The Laughlin Family Foundation strongly believes that this symposium and the collaboration of these world experts will help to make a positive impact on the state of incidence, mortality, and treatments of these cancers.
