Congratulations to Prof Sarah Coupland who attended Birkenhead Town Hall on Thursday 9th February 2017 to attain British Citizenship.  The ceremony was conducted by the registrar and Mayor of Wirral, Councillor Pet Hackett.

Prof. Coupland Vice Chair of the 8 Eye Cancer Chapters in the recently completed 8TH EDITION AJCC-TNM CANCER STAGING
The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) recently celebrated the completion of the 8th edition of its Cancer Staging Manual.
The AJCC Cancer Staging Manual defines an international language for oncology. Created with and adopted by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), the AJCC-UICC TNM Cancer Classifications enables communication between cancer care providers all over the world. The manual brings together all currently available information on staging of cancer, and incorporates newly acquired knowledge on cancer aetiology and pathology.
The AJCC Cancer Staging Manual:

• Enables communication within the local health care team.
• Makes patient education more effective.
• Improves clinical and patient-related decision-making.
• Allows for quality measurements.
• Improves clinical research.
   
  Professor Sarah Coupland was the Vice Chair of the AJCC-TNM of the Ophthalmic Oncology Task Force (OOTF*), and she contributed significantly to all of the 8 chapters on eye and orbital cancers.
   
  She says: “This is a unique and very valuable piece of work for eye cancers, pulled together by international experts in ocular oncology; it represents a consensus opinion, based on current knowledge and evidence in the literature in the field. The advantage of the TNM staging system is that it is reviewed regularly, and new prognostic information can be incorporated: so, the chapters are living documents”.
   
  The AJCC is comprised of 20 members including the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and other organizations focused on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
  The 8th edition AJCC staging manual is available for pre-order on Amazon.
   
  *Members of the Ophthalmic Sites Expert Panel: Daniel M. Albert, MD, MS; Anush G. Amiryan, MD; Claudia Auw-Hädrich, MD; Diane Baker, CTR; Raymond Barnhill, MD, MSc; José M. Caminal, MD, PhD; William L. Carroll, MD; Nathalie Cassoux, MD, PhD; Jaume Catalá-Mora, MD; Guillermo Chantada, MD; Patricia Chévez-Barrios, MD; R. Max Conway, MD, PhD, FRANZCO; Sarah E. Coupland, MBBS, PhD – Vice Chair; Bertil E. Damato, MD, PhD; Hakan Demirci, MD; Laurence G. Desjardins, MD; François Doz, MD, MSc; Jonathan J. Dutton, MD, PhD, FACS; Bita Esmaeli, MD, FACS; Paul T. Finger, MD, FACS – Chair; Brenda L. Gallie, MD, FACSC; Gerardo F. Graue, MD; Hans E. Grossniklaus, MD – CAP; Steffen Heegaard, MD; Leonard M. Holbach, MD; Santosh G. Honavar, MD, FACS; Martine J. Jager, MD, PhD; Tero Kivelä, MD, FEBO; Emma Kujala, MD; Livia Lumbroso-Le Rouic, MD; Ashwin C. Mallipatna, MBBS, MS, DNB; Giulio M. Modorati, MD; Francis L. Munier, MD; Timothy G. Murray, MD, MBA, FACS; Anna C. Pavlick, MS, DO; Jacob Pe’er, MD; David E. Pelayes, MD, PhD; Gaelle Pierron; Victor G. Prieto, MD, PhD; Manuel Jorge Rodrigues, MD; Svetlana Saakyan, MD; Wolfgang A.G. Sauerwein, MD, PhD; Ekaterina Semenova, MD; Stefan Seregard, MD; Carol Shields, MD; E. Rand Simpson, MD, FRCS(C); Arun D. Singh, MD; Shigenobu Suzuki, MD, PhD; Mary Kay Washington, MD, PhD; Valerie A. White, MD, MHSc, FRCPC; Michelle Williams, MD; Matthew W. Wilson, MD, FACS; Christian W. Wittekind, MD – UICC; Vivian Yin, MD, MPH, FRCSC.

The Liverpool Ocular Oncology Research Group are pictured here at the North West Cancer Research Centre-University of Liverpool showing solidarity and displaying science knows no cultural boundaries.

Congratulations to Natalie Kipling pictured here with Prof Sarah Coupland (left) and Dr Helen Kalirai (right) for achieving a very high mark of 88% in her undergraduate final year project 'Immunohistochemical characterisation of uveal melanoma cells grown as 3D spheroids'. Natalie is completing an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science at Liverpool John Moores University and did her final year project with Prof Coupland and Dr Kalirai in LOORG with help from the Immunohistochemistry team and Histopathology department at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. Well done Natalie!

The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) has elected Professor Sarah Coupland as their new Vice-President Elect for 2017-2018.
ARVO is the largest eye and vision research organisation in the world. It has helped to advance research into understanding the visual system and preventing, treating and curing its disorders. Over 12,000 researchers from 75 countries are members and attend the annual meeting in May each year.
Prof Coupland, said: “I am honoured to have been elected to this prestigious position, and I am looking forward to playing such a significant role in promoting its members and the field of ophthalmology and vision research.”
The announcement was made at the ARVO 2016 Annual Meeting in Seattle, and marks the first time a non-US female has been elected to the role. Congratulations to Sarah!

Prof Coupland had a jam-packed schedule at this years Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) annual meeting in Seattle. Sarah is on the Board of Trustees, which includes attending many meetings in addition to her presenting her work. ARVO attracts around 12,000 delegates each year.

Prof Sarah Coupland is pictured here with Dr Nicolas Bazan (Director and Founder of Neuroscience Center of Excellence, LSUHSC, School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA)  and Dr Geeta Vemuganti (Dean of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, India), at the beginning of the ARVO WEAVR lunch, which had 350 attendees. Geeta gave a very inspirational talk to the audience, whilst Sarah moderated the session which lasted 1.5 hours!

Sarah is pictured here with Iris Rush, Dr Geeta Vemuganti and Emily Chew.