Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Gestational trophoblastic diseases (GTD) are a group of conditions that originate from the abnormal hyperproliferation of the trophoblast and encompass hydatidiform moles (HM), invasive moles, choriocarcinomas, and other rare tumors. GTD may develop after any type of normal or abnormal pregnancies, but their incidence is 1000-times higher after HM than after any other pregnancies. HM affect 1 in 600 pregnancies in western countries but has higher frequencies in other countries. Recurrent HM (RHM) affects 1-9% of patients with a prior HM. There are 2 known genes responsible for RHM that explain this disease in 60% of patients. Therefore, 40% of patients with RHM remain unexplained. Another challenge in this research area is due to the fact that about 30% of sporadic HM degenerate into gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) and require single/multi-drugs chemotherapy and 5% degenerate into gestational choriocarcinomas, which are aggressive and metastatic cancer that may lead to the death of the patients in the absence of appropriate management. Today, we do not know why some HM degenerate into GTN and choriocarcinomas and not others because these conditions are rare in developing countries where most medical research is being performed. The World Congress on GTD was initiated 1982 and is attended by clinicians and researchers from around the world who meet every 2 years. For the first time in 37 years, this meeting will be held in Toronto (Canada) in 2019. The goals of this meeting are networking and sharing knowledge, updating clinical practice guidelines, and planning new international collaborations to advance the understanding of GTD and their treatments. The objectives of this proposal are to run 2 workshops: 1/ Comprehensive analysis of HM tissues and correlation with their histopathology to speed up the identification of remaining genes for RHM and 2/ Gestational Trophoblastic Neoplasia: bridging the gap between developing and developed countries.