On behalf of the International Cancer Imaging Society (ICIS) and the Champalimaud Foundation, we would like to invite you to register for our jointly hosted meeting 'AI and Machine Learning in Cancer Imaging 3.0', which will be held on 30 June and 1 July 2023.  The meeting will take place at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, in Lisbon. 

In this video, Oriol Parés, Radiation Oncologist at the Champalimaud Foundation's Radiation Oncology Service, presents the advantages of the Watch and Wait (W&W) protocol in trying to avoid rectal surgery in low rectal cancer patients, sparing them from the decline of defecatory, urinary and sexual functions that can result from radiochemotherapy followed by surgery.

Surgery continues to be central in colorectal cancer treatment.

In this short video, surgeon Pedro Vieira describes the state-of-art practice of colorectal surgery at the Champalimaud Foundation, with a particular emphasis on robotic surgery, the gold standard in rectal surgery, and minimally invasive surgery, which Digestive Unit surgeons favour whenever possible.

There are different ways to classify cancers: for instance, by the organ (or tissue) in which they originate, and by the type of cells they involve. Cancers can be solid (tumour-forming) or liquid (blood cancers).

Using the first method yields more than 200 different types of cancer. In alphabetical order, the most common are: bladder cancer, breast cancer, colon and rectal cancer, endometrial cancer, kidney cancer, leukemia (blood cancer), liver cancer, lung cancer melanoma (skin cancer), non-Hodgkin lymphoma, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, and thyroid cancer.

The past 10 years have witnessed a doubling of colorectal cancers (CRC) in people under 50 years of age – from 5% to 10% of all cases. Just in the US, between 2008 and 2015, this increase was over 60%!

In 1975 (International Women’s Year), the United Nations recognised March 8 as International Women’s Day, but did you know that the date has been important to women’s rights since 1908, when hundreds of female workers in New York demonstrated to form their own union and demand the right to vote? Each year, this date reminds us to strive for a fairer society, regardless of gender.

When we hear about someone having been diagnosed with “stage IV” cancer, most of us know this is very bad news. It is the most advanced overall cancer stage.

Classifying – or staging – a cancer is paramount to determining the cancer’s prognosis (its likely evolution) and to choose the most appropriate treatment. A misclassified cancer can lead to wrong treatment options, including undertreatment or overtreatment.