ESMO GI/DiCE Symposium 2020 Session 1: The Value of Patient Organisations

Stefan Gijssels is Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Digestive Cancers Europe, the umbrella organisation of all digestive cancer patient associations in Europe (oesophageal, gastric, pancreatic, colon, rectum, liver and rare digestive cancers). The organisation represents more than 30 national associations. In this capacity, he is also member of the European Commission’s Innovative Partnership for Action Against Cancer (iPAAC), and of the European Reference Network of Rare Cancers (EURACAN). He is one of the founders and Board Member of the Patient Expert Center in Belgium. He is Co-Chair of the Patient Advisory Committee of the European Cancer Organisation, and a member of its Executive Committee. Stefan is a metastatic colon cancer survivor. Since 2016, he also works as an independent health policy advisor, publicist, facilitator and moderator, working for public health authorities, patient organisations and industry. Until 2016, he was Vice President Communication & Public Affairs at Janssen Europe, Middle East & Africa. In the 90s he was director and general manager at Burson-Marsteller, Vice-President at Weber-Shandwick, Public Affairs Manager at McDonald’s, and Project Manager at the Institute of the Enterprise, a Belgian policy think tank. He started his career as an English teacher in Morocco. He has a a master’s degree in Literature and Philosophy from Leuven University, Belgium.