the 12th International Gastric Cancer Congress (IGCC).This IGCC is the world’s highest level of cancer specialist academic exchange platform，which is related to the basis of gastric cancer and transformation research， prevention，diagnosis (including early diagnosis and screening)， treatment， rehabilitation and other areas of gastric cancer prevention and treatment.IGCC Daily News have invited president of this IGCC and three co-chairs ，Professor Bruno Zilberstein，Professor Takeshi Sano and Professor Han-Kwang Yang to conducting a summit dialogue，providing their views and expectations for IGCC2017.See More on Page2

 

IGCC Daily News:The 12th International Gastric Cancer Conference is the highest level international academic conference for gastric cancer. As President and Co-Chairs， can you talk about the theme of the conference and how it will be presented? 

 

Prof.Ji: This Congress is very important and showcases the real international cooperation between gastric cancer societies from around the world， like China， Brazil and India. Especially in China， we see a high incidence rate and early diagnosis is not good. There are half-a-million new cases in China each year. This year’s conference theme is “Bridging Gaps to Improve the Management of Gastric Cancer”. For both developed and developing countries， there are totally different cultures， totally different hospitals， and the people are different. Through this conference， we have set up a platform between doctors and scientists， and between scientists and researchers to communicate and learn from each other. I think this is very important.

 

Prof.Sano: Today， while listening to the Congress President’s speech， I was convinced that we were right to chose China as the IGCC 2017 venue， and we are sure it will be a big success. I feel that Chinese doctors and young researchers are especially looking forward to it. For several years now， doctors in China have been looking for direction. Of course， some of them were active on the world scale; some of them do not talk to the world at all. But now， I think all Chinese doctors working in the gastric cancer field are working together and moving forward in the same direction towards the future and to international standards. Chinese clinical trials are not retrospective anymore but are now prospective， and many clinical trials are ongoing. This is very impressive. I think the International Gastric Cancer Conference will have a big impact on the history of Chinese gastric cancer.

 

Prof.Zilberstein: I think that this is the main role of our society - to get people together from societies from all over the world to exchange experiences and increase knowledge， to talk together and to improve methods to treat gastric cancer， and to make it easier for everybody. 

 

Prof.Yang: Since Beijing was chosen as the venue two years ago， Dr. Jiafu Ji and the Chinese leadership have been preparing， discussing， and consulting. We not only have enthusiastic participation from China， but also from all over the world， and we will be very excited over the course of the Congress. It is a great moment in the history of gastric cancer. We are now very proud to have chosen Beijing four years ago. Congratulations!

 

Prof.Sano: We listened to the history of the Chinese Gastric Cancer Association today. The Japanese Gastric Cancer Association has a long history of more than 50 years. The Korean Gastric Cancer Association have held regular meetings also， but even though the Chinese Gastric Cancer Association has existed for some time， it sometimes had breaks from an annual congress. More recently， this International Congress has been growing more and more every year here in China， and more and more doctors have been gathering from around the globe. I think it is a very important step.

 

Prof.Yang: The main theme of this Congress is “Bridging Gaps to Improve the Management of Gastric Cancer” and in the same way， over the last four years， Chinese doctors have built an infrastructure in China through working together， collaboration， study groups， and so on. Many gaps have been bridged and we are very excited for the ongoing development of our Association for the betterment of patients with gastric cancer. 

 

Prof.Sano: This is a very important Congress. Everybody has been waiting for it and now we are here. Our unity is very strong and we look forward to strong leadership to take us into the future. Now you should control all the group to the future. If surgeons and physicians go back to their home countries without inspiration， then it is not good. We must move forward with clinical trial groups and so on.

 

Prof.Yang: We need to work together， not just through conferences and meetings and clinical trials but also through data collection， of the patients’ phenotype and genotype， collection of samples， and whether it is a big or small hospital， we can share these data and focus on evidence-based research in our clinical practice to provide good service for our patients. 

 

Prof.Zilberstein:Through the efforts of Professor Yang， Professor Jiafu Ji， and Professor Sano， we are already discussing the next meeting and also how to support young surgeons to get involved to allow them to gain more knowledge and to be able to share all this knowledge all over the world. This is very important， and many thanks to you all for stimulating us to go forward and enhance these exchanges.

 

Prof.Yang: One important change has been made since 2009 when we were in Krakow. Up until then， we would get together to share experiences during the conference and go back home. But since then， Professor Sano and I worked on the AJCC TNM staging system and its evolution. And then in 2011， for the first time， we not only shared ideas but also executed some activities. And this year， Professor Sano presented the outcomes of the TNM system， which has been under the leadership of Professor Zilberstein for the last two years. Now， Jiafu will become the President of the Association and we are expecting more activities， like outreach programs that visit some countries where gastric cancer treatment is still developing. The Association and the Faculty are happy to lend our support as we share our achievements with these developing areas to improve gastric cancer patient treatment outcomes. These activities will be very exciting. Professor Ji has a very important role to play.

 

IGCC Daily News:What do you think is the future development direction of the International Gastric Cancer Conference? What are the challenges that lie ahead?

 

Prof.Sano: At the Council Meeting prior to the start of the Congress， we discussed future projects and plans for IGCA activities. As Professor Yang said， one of the important points is the teaching workshop organized by IGCA. We will choose some countries (in Europe or South America， for example) and we will ask the local people to organize some workshops. IGCA will organize some specialists in the fields of surgery， endoscopy， pathology and so on， and will form a teaching delegation to attend the workshop. The teaching workshop will include live demonstrations and so on and they will learn a lot. So we will support these workshops and organize these teams， and this will be an important role of IGCA. We will also continue the TNM staging project with the AJCC. There is always something new in TNM staging， and without our specialist opinion， it will simply be the American opinion going forward. So we should work together. 

 

Jiafu Ji: With the high incidence rate of gastric cancer in China， I think China can contribute a lot of patient case data and also assist developing countries with projects. We have been conducting training programs. For the APASL Congress， we held a two-week training and visited a lot of gastric cancer centers in Northern and Southern China to inspire the younger doctors particularly and their country to work harder. 

 

Prof.Zilberstein:This teaching activity that Professor Ji has been promoting has great repercussion all over the world， because it allows young people to come to China sponsored by the Chinese Society. The conditions are very similar to places like Brazil and other countries in South America and Central America. This allows these young surgeons to improve their knowledge and to participate and go back to their countries and promote progress in the treatment and management of this disease. I think that any activities that improve knowledge and improve achievement of knowledge are very important and are one of the main functions of our society in moving forward.

 

Prof.Yang: Another change in the last few years has been that the International Gastric Cancer Association is truly international. Our Association encourages regional activities in Latin American， Europe and the Asia-Pacific， and at our IGCA Council Meeting， we officially acknowledged each chapter. Some of these local chapters have proposed some IGCA level clinical studies. So it is not only development projects that are ongoing but also research will be supported by IGCA， and that will activate more regional activities. 

 

Prof.Sano: From my Korean experience， our group started multi-institutional study groups where they had previously not existed before. At first， the top Professor was the PI， but with each new study， the teams would nominate someone new as the leader as a strategy to make them experience the responsibility. I would suggest that nominating professors in various parts of China to organize CGCA meetings in their local regions and to do this on a rotation system will help physicians become more and more active and unity will become tighter. This is my suggestion.

 

Prof.Yang: Having the big meeting every two years is a big undertaking but I am pretty sure Ji will organize some small scale meetings in the meantime to assess what we have achieved this year at IGCC 2017.