Virtual Dupuytren's Symposium - 2021

The registration and program have been released for the next Dupuytren's Symposium and there are some interesting sessions that I am looking forward to attending. 

You can see the whole program here.

Highlights for me will be the session on radiotherapy because 1) It worked so well on me and 2) 2 of the papers being discussed are on the treatment of Ledderhose:

Session 4: Wednesday 3rd November, Time: 20:00 UTC (20:00 GMT)
Radiotherapy

Keynote: Radiotherapy for Dupuytren Disease
Dr. Richard Shaffer, The Dupuytren’s Practise, London, UK

1. A Randomized trial of Radiotherapy for Dupuytren’s Disease – DEPART
J. Martin, Newcastle, Australia
2. Radiotherapy in patients with painful Ledderhose disease: a randomised, multicenter, prospective, double-blind phase III trial.
A. de Haan, Groningen, The Netherlands
3. Radiotherapy for patients with Ledderhose disease: long-term efficacy, side effects and patient-rated outcome
A. de Haan, Groningen, The Netherlands

After this I am also looking forward to session 6 which is experimental treatments. Looking forward to getting an update on the anti-TNF treatment. 

It is a shame that the conference is having to be held virtually as last time it was such a great experience meeting up with everyone and learning a lot from all the different people at a single conference. 

Conference over, time to go home

Fountain in the local park where I went for my runs

So the conference is over and it is time to go home and say goodbye to Holland. I have had a fantastic time in Groningen and the conference certainly lived up to my lofty expectations. I have spent so much time in the last few days hearing about Dupuytren's and Ledderhose from the best experts and doctors in the world that I am on information overload, hopefully that is a good thing and hopefully these doctors will stay in touch and feel they are able to use the patient community to enhance their research. 

My talk was apparently received very well and I have had doctors and other attendees telling me I did a good job and hopefully when it comes on YouTube everyone else will agree. I feel like I did myself and the patients proud although I forgot to mention that 92.5% of Ledderhose patients that responded that were over 60 had Dupuytren's, not overly important but that is a shockingly high percentage. 

The final part of the conference was a discussion on collaboration, people working together to get the best funding that they can for this kind of research. It was great to see people working together like that. There seemed to be some great ideas of what is needed to really progress Dupuytren's research and further the work that is going on. 

I certainly feel that with the minds that are looking into this and the way they all want to work together for the benefit of patients there is hope for patients that we may one day have a cure for this. Sure it may not be in the next 5 or 10 years but I am hoping that if nothing else it would be available before my daughter would develop this condition (hopefully she won't get it).