The two award winners Caroline Lilja and Louise Faaborg, and Judges Henrik Frederisken and Randi Munch Krogsgaard. Photo: DKD2002, DCCC.
07-09-22
The possibility of more targeted individualised treatment of breast cancer-related lymphedema and the use of a new biomarker to support treatment decisions related to recurrence of ovarian cancer are the themes of the two award winners Caroline Lilja and Louise Faaborg.
At the Danish Cancer Research Days 2022, there were two loud applauses on Friday when the conference's two poster awards were handed out.
Best Poster Award – an award that celebrates easy and accessible visual communication of research to participants at the conference.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosis among women. With its high survival rate, the number living with long-term late-effect is significant. More than 1 in 5 develop breast cancer-related lymphedema, which is a chronic, life-long side effect that causes swelling of the arm, loss of function and reduced quality of life.
Caroline Lilja, who is a medical student at Odense University Hospital, will with her pilot study contribute to more knowledge about how breast cancer-related lymphedema can be prevented with targeted individualised treatment. The ambition is to become better at identifying lymphatic vessels and blood vessels in close proximity to each other, so that these can be better exposed during the operation and stitched together using super-microsurgery.
The study is expected to contribute to increasing our knowledge in the field, and Caroline manages to convey this otherwise technical method in a clear and easily accessible manner. That is why she receives the Best Poster Award in connection with Danish Cancer Research Days 2022.
"Caroline received the award because her poster captured interest from afar, and that on closer inspection it showed that Caroline fully understands how important the connection between written words and the visual expression is when communicating research to a broad target audience. " says Randi Munch Krogsgaard, patient representative in DCCC's Steering Committee and judge.
You can read more about Caroline's project in this year's Danish Cancer Research Days Abstractbook or take a look at her beautiful and award-winning entries in the picture above.
Best Flash Talk Award – an award that celebrates an outstanding presentation of strong academic relevance
The selection of abstracts was not easy this year for Danish Cancer Research Days, because the level was high. Around 120 posters were selected for poster presentation at the poster sessions on both Thursday and Friday. Of them, 12 got extra good ratings, and got the opportunity to present points from their posts for the new element on the program: flash talks!
The flash talk format is a difficult communication task, because you only have 3 minutes to talk about the background, method, results and perspectives of your research - to an audience with mixed backgrounds and expertise. One flash talk distinguished itself by succeeding extraordinarily well in conveying a complicated subject area, so that none of the audience had any doubts about the exciting perspectives of the results – namely Louise Faaborg, PhD student, Department of Oncology, Lillebaelt Hospital, Southern Denmark University Hospital, entitled “Prognostic Impact of Circulating Methylated Homeobox A9 DNA in Patients Under Treatment for Recurrent Ovarian Cancer.
"We were very impressed by how Louise solved this task and looked calmly as if she had a good time and had never done anything else", says Henrik Frederiksen, professor and chairman of the DCCC Scientific Council.
Louise's project has specifically investigated a new biomarker, meth-HOXA9, with the aim that it can be used clinically to support treatment decisions and identify the subgroup that will benefit from treatment, among patients with previous ovarian cancer. A piece of work that has professional and societal relevance as recurrent ovarian cancer, at the time of writing, is a clinical challenge with significant mortality and low response rates to chemotherapy.
The honor also comes with DKK 5,000 for each of the two winners.