MetARP 2024: Joan and Anna
MetARP 2024
The Metastasis Research Society shows impressive effort in nurturing early career researchers through the establishment of the Early Career Leadership Council. And, thankfully, MRS is also very welcoming in connecting these researchers and patient advocates via the MRS Advocate Researcher Program (MetARP). The program is a joint effort between MRS and Theresa’s Research Foundation. It is instrumental in helping advocates and researchers develop long-term, meaningful relationships.
Patient advocate: Joan Mancuso
At this year’s MRS biennial Congress, I connected with researcher Anna Salamero Boix through MetARP, first virtually and then in-person at the Congress. The initial meeting is a great idea. It allowed Anna and me to take the time to get to know each other. Anna explained her research on breast cancer brain metastasis. We ended up being a great match since I had a metastasis of the brain. In turn, I was able to let Anna know about my initial stage II breast cancer diagnosis in 2003 and subsequent metastatic diagnosis in 2007, with spread to the lung and brain. For me, it was personally rewarding to learn of Anna’s research. She is studying immune suppression and inflammatory pathways along with radiotherapy, with an outlook toward therapeutic intervention. (?) Anna is currently in the laboratory of Dr. Lisa Sevenich at Georg-Speyer-Haus. By the time we met in-person I felt comfortable in getting to know Anna.
Thanks to MetARP, this is the first time that Anna has interacted with advocates, and I was able to share some of the benefits of this interaction such as providing input on a grant application about the potential effect of research on patients, reminding researchers of the importance of thinking about translation and helping to bring research to patients through meetings and webinars, just to name a few of the advantages.
Further, I learned that Anna has other excellent interests related to her research. For example, she is a volunteer and Director of Cancer Seminars at Open Box Science. OBS is dedicated to offering free talks by early career scientists, which are available worldwide. Anna is also an Ambassador at the European Association of Cancer Research, which is an organization that strives to connect researchers and their research. Plus, she volunteers at other organizations as well.
It is a wonderful experience to know Anna and learn about her dedication to breast cancer metastasis research.
Researcher: Anna Salamero Boix
Some time ago, I decided to pursue a career in biomedical research with the ultimate goal to improve patient outcome and make a difference in the life of a person and their close ones. As a non-clinical researcher, especially in Europe, the direct contact with patient advocates is usually scare. Therefore, I was extremely glad and thankful to get connected with Joan Mancuso thanks to the MetARP Program and learn from her perspective as patient advocate. I was also excited to be on board because I always strongly admire those people who advocate for better patient diagnostics, treatment and to ensure that the voices from the patients are heard and considered. Particularly if that comes from people living with that disease.
I admire from Joan how much she is informed from the disease, in biological terms, and what she does to be intentional and take action. Examples of her active involvement with researchers are her visits to laboratories, where she also interacts with young researchers. She is also a reviewer for the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program, as well as an advocate in several scientific grants. I was glad to hear about her contribution to those initiatives, since I am aware that the questions from the patients are the real deal and they may lead to a redirection of research. She was definitively a source of inspiration, also beyond science.
I hope more societies and meetings include initiatives such as MetARP to potentiate connections between researchers and patient advocates. Before the start of the program, we were given certain resources to be prepared and get educated for the first contact with each other. I found such resources crucial to have before learning from the first experience of their reality, particularly for those researchers who never experienced direct contact with patients. Here are links to those resources:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2217/fon-2020-1198
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41523-022-00440-y
After being part of the MetARP program, it was clear to me that patient advocates take all opportunities to build the tomorrow they want. It falls on us, as researchers, to use our knowledge to help them and to quickly advance on biomedical research.
