This year’s edition of the annual meeting of the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Gastrointestinal Cancer was special in many ways. It marked the 30th anniversary since its inception in St. Louis, reason for which the annual meeting was back in town.
That in itself carried a particular significance, given that the city’s famous landmark has its origins in Finland, just like our company (see below).
It also marked the third year of our strategic partnership with this group of exceptional individuals, where we get to have inspiring and insightful conversations with the practitioners that take care of people and families affected by Lynch syndrome every day.
Those meetings are amongst the highlights each year and have also been special moments for us. In 2023 we hosted an industry symposium, in 2024 it was the place where we officially launched our new brand, and this year the event was the opportunity to share with attendees the latest developments in our journey to enter the US market.
So, it was once again a fruitful and excellent couple of days, and we were also very happy to bring along a new face, as Tea joined our ‘CGA delegation’ for the first time. Here are her reflections on the experience:
CGA-IGC 2025 Meeting in St Louis: Finnish architecture in and outside of city
This year, the CGA-IGC meeting was held on October 9 – 11th in historical St. Louis. The city was quiet when I arrived on the previous evening with no other people around than the ones in Cinderella-like horse-drawn carriage that passed me on one street corner. This first impression of the city felt absurd, like a dream, especially after being awake for 24 hours.
On the first morning, I woke up to beautiful sunshine over the city, so I decided to take a walk in the nearby Gateway Arch National Park before the welcoming speech. The Gateway Arch, a majestic 192-meter-tall monument designed by Eero Saarinen, was unfortunately closed for the public, but I got the best view of it standing in the morning mist, glittering in golden light. This symbol of westward expansion was very fitting for our company as well as we are currently setting foot in the US market.
As a first-time attendee, it was enlightening to hear about the history of CGA-IGC. I also followed the debate over the genetic test panel size. Maegan Roberts encouraged her colleagues by saying that genetic counsellors should not be so afraid of VUS (variant of uncertain significance), and for me it emphasized the importance of my own work as DiagMMR will help in revealing VUS-cases in the future being a functional test. All in all, I got this feeling of getting to be part of something great – one small link in the course of history.
The rest of the conference days were full of inspiring conversations at our booth. The enthusiasm and encouragement towards our unique method was heart-warming to which I will hold onto after returning to everyday life. Another thing I’ll try to maintain here in Finland, especially during the gloomy autumn weather, is the friendliness and easiness in giving compliments to strangers that the Americans truly excel at. This trip was remarkable for me both professionally and personally as it was the first CGA-IGC conference I got to attend, and I had the opportunity to finally meet my host family from an exchange during high school after 11 years.
