Professor Perry J Pickhardt delivered the eponymous Mayneord Memorial Lecture titled “The natural history of colorectal neoplasia?” on Monday 2 July to an audience of radiologists, radiographers, scientists and oncologists gathered at UKRCO in Liverpool.
In his engaging talk, Professor Pickhardt said colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in both men and women. This is a preventable disease and even early cancers are effectively treatable. In many parts of the developed world it is either under-screened or not screened at all, whilst in parts of the USA arguably too many colonoscopies are performed, which reveal many tiny polyps, very few of which will ever turn into cancer. He went on to describe the optimum screening process using CT colonography and then outlined the polyp to cancer sequence, CT colonography overview, and covered both static and dynamic predictors. He finished with a positive message that a prolonged window exists for colorectal cancer prevention and early detection and that CT colonography is highly attractive for population screening.
Professor Pickhardt has a worldwide reputation as a clinician, academic, and educator in GI imaging. He is currently Chief of Gastrointestinal Imaging at the University Of Wisconsin School Of Medicine and Public Health, and the Medical Director of Cancer Imaging at the centre. Originally graduating in physics, he had a career in the US Navy as a radiologist, including a period at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
BIR President Andy Rogers said “Professor Pickhardt’s talk was a tour-de-force of the current evidence surrounding the diagnosis of colon cancer and the important role of CT Colonography (CTC) in that diagnosis. It was a pleasure to welcome Perry to UKRCO and I wish him every success in forwarding the cause of colon cancer screening by CTC.”
After the lecture, Professor Pickhardt was presented with a commemorative trophy. He said, “I was truly honoured to receive the BIR/Canon Mayneord Award and be given the opportunity to deliver a lecture at UKRCO in Liverpool.”
Mark Hitchman, Managing Director Canon Medical, who presented the award, said, ”It is crucial that we, as society, take note and act on the extensive knowledge and experience of people like Professor Perry Pickhardt, because early intervention with diseases like colon cancer means outcomes are so much better for patients, and affordable for healthcare systems that are increasingly over stretched”.
The BIR Canon Medical Systems Mayneord Memorial Lecture is an annual award made to an individual or a group of collaborators in recognition of recent or current contributions in the wide and expanding field of radiology. The lecture was founded in 1984 in memory of Professor Val Mayneord CBE FRS, past President of the BIR. The lecture is given at the annual UKRCO.
The award recognises values, skills and contributions at the forefront of medical imaging, in line with its sponsor, Canon Medical Systems’ commitment to education.
The lecture can be viewed on the UKRCO website here https://ukrco.org.uk/webcasts/
Previous recipients include Professor Keith McNeill (2017), Professor Adrian Dixon (2016) Professor Sir Muir Gray (2015), Professor John Buscombe (2014), Professor Richard Ehman (2012), Professor Sir Mike Richards (2011) and Lord Darzi (2010).
Photograph: (left to right) Andy Rogers (BIR President), Mark Hitchman (Managing Director, Canon Medical) and Professor Perry J Pickhardt .