MONDAY 21 MARCH 2022

Biography
Gerrit Meijer is professor of pathology with a special interest in gastrointestinal oncology and translational research. After finishing medical school at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam he completed his PhD on “Cancer Risk Assessment in Adenoma Bearing Patients”. He had his training in pathology at the VU University Medical Center (VUmc) where he continued to work as a pathologist and from 2009 as chair of the Department of Pathology. In 2015 he moved to the Netherlands Cancer Institute/Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, where he now is head of research & innovation at the Department of Pathology and head of the Division of Diagnostic Translational Oncology.
Professor Meijer leads a translational research group that focuses on gastrointestinal cancer, especially biomarker development for early detection of colorectal cancer, as well as on definition of molecular intermediate endpoints for screening. This work is amongst other funded by a Stand Up To Cancer & Dutch Cancer Society “Dream Team” grant for early detection of colorectal cancer.

Keywords
The biggest hurdles in routine clinical practice to providing cancer patients with access to whole genome sequencing (WGS) based tumor diagnostics, and consequently to the rapidly increasing armamentarium of targeted anti-cancer drugs, are neither absence of qualified sequencing technology nor lack of proof of concept precision oncology studies, but rather implementation struggles. The WIDE (WGS Implementation in standard Diagnostics for Each cancer patient) study has provided unique evidence that these implementation hurdles can be overcome.

Biography
Professor Moeslein is Professor of Surgery and Dept. Head of the newly established Center for Hereditary Tumors at the Academic Hospital of the University of Düsseldorf Ev. BETHESDA in Duisburg, Germany.
She completed her surgical training at the University of Heidelberg and Düsseldorf, interrupted by a 6 month stipend at the University of Hyogo, where she trained with Prof. Joji Utsonomiya. Further she completed her research year with a DFG-funded stipend to Mayo Clinic, Dept. of Molecular Genetics headed by Prof. Steve Thibodeau. She was chair of the Surgical Dept. at HELIOS St. Josefs-Klinik in Bochum, before she transitioned to the more specialized and dedicated Surgical Center for Hereditary Tumors at the University of Witten-Herdecke in 2015. Here she dedicated most of her surgeries to the field of prophylactic surgery for hereditary conditions, ileoanal and continent pouches (Kock Pouch) and also incontinence surgery. The dedicated center and concept transitioned to the Academic Hospital of the University of Düsseldorf BETHESDA Khs. Duisburg in January 2020.
Prof. Moeslein has been a long-standing elected Council member and Director of InSiGHT (International Society for Hereditary Gastrointestinal Tumors) and hosted the biennial meeting in 2009 in Düsseldorf. Together with Prof. H. Vasen she initiated and chaired the Mallorca Group as a European Expert Group on Hereditary Cancer. This group was reformed to the Society of Hereditary Tumors in 2016. She is external advisor of for the CFR (Cancer Family Registries) and is a founding member of the IMRC (International Mismatch Repair Consortium). She is also a founding member of the German Consortium for HNPCC and Steering Committee member. She leads the working group on Hereditary Gastrointestinal Cancer of the German Society of Visceral Surgeons. She was Secretary of ESCP (European Society for Coloproctology) from 2016 – 2020 and is now Program Director. Her research activities focus on prophylactic surgery for hereditary conditions, ileoanal and continent pouches and chemoprevention. She focusses on promoting and enabling collaborative studies and networking and more than 200 peer reviewed publications and book chapters.

Keywords
specific genes
colorectal surgery
prophylactic surgery

Biography
Bas Oldenburg, a graduate from the University of Utrecht, is Professor of Gastroenterology and director of the GI Fellowship Training Program in Utrecht. His main research interests are primarily related to IBD: the etiology and pathogenesis of IBD, surveillance for colitis-associated colorectal cancer and personalised medicine in IBD. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed articles. He is cofounder and former chairman of the Dutch Initiative of Crohn’s and colitis (ICC), has participated in the development of national and international guidelines and is member of the NVGE, ECCO and AGA.

Keywords
patient stratification
chromoendoscopy
management of colitis-associated dysplasia

Biography
Dr. Richir is a colorectal surgeon at the University hospital Utrecht. He is specialized in minimal invasive treatment of patients with colorectal carcinoma and patients with IBD.

Keywords
Colorectal carcinoma
IBD
Surveillance
Treatment

Biography
Dr. Miangela Lacle is a consultant Gastrointestinal Pathologist, practicing in the University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands. Her primary interests are in the pathology and biology of early colorectal cancer. She has been pathology lead for the Dutch T1 CRC working group since it was founded in 2014.

Keywords
Pathology of pT1 CRCs
Lymphovascular invasion
Tumour budding
Margin assessment
Risk prediction models

Biography
Studied medicine in Utrecht, the Netherlands;
PhD in clinical molecular genetics in Leipzig, Germany;
training for clinical molecular geneticist in Leiden, Netherlands;
worked in pharmaceutical industry with Organon, Schering Plough and Amgen;
since 2014 Program manager of PLCRC

Keywords
use of cohort study to facilitate translation research

Biography
Thierry Conroy, MD, is a medical oncologist and serves as director of the “Institut de Cancérologie de Lorraine”, a comprehensive cancer center in Nancy, France. He is Professor of oncology at the University of Lorraine. His research and clinical activities focus on gastrointestinal malignancies and patient quality of life. Within the UNICANCER-Gastrointestinal and PRODIGE groups, he has developed and has validated the Folfirinox regimen that has led major changes in patient outcomes in patients with pancreatic or rectal cancer. He has authored/co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.

Keywords
locally advanced rectal cancer
preoperative chemoradiotherapy
preoperative radiotherapy
total mesorectal excision
adjuvant chemotherapy

Biography
Jim Khan is a consultant surgeon at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust and Professor of Surgery at the University of Portsmouth. His training included senior registrar at Basingstoke with Prof Heald, the National Laparoscopic Fellowship at Colchester (UK) with Prof Motson and a travelling clinical fellowship at Mayo Clinic Rochester (US). He also travelled to Korea for training in Robotic colorectal surgery with Prof Kim.
Prof Khan has been a national trainer in laparoscopic colorectal surgery and European proctor and trainer in robotic colorectal surgery. His research interests include Clinical research in robotic colorectal cancer surgery, complete mesocolic excision for colon cancer, Quality of life and functional outcomes after low anterior resection, training in laparoscopic & robotic colorectal surgery. He is member of core working groups in robotic surgery at the RCS, ACPGBI, ALSGBI, ESCP and ASCRS

Keywords
rectal cancer
robotic surgery
precision surgery
oncological benefits

Biography
since 2020 Chair Department of Surgery, St. John of God Hospital Graz, Austria (teaching hospital of Graz Medical University)
2014-2019 Department of Surgery, Charité Berlin; 2017-2019 Deputy Head at Campus Charité Mitte
since Oct 2020 Adjunct Professor at Charité Berlin
2001-2014 Training in Anatomy and Surgery, specialization in surgical oncology, coloproctology and transplantation
Programme Committee member ESCP, chair of the Austrian Society of Coloproctology, executive board member German Society of Coloproctology

Keywords
sphincter preserving
nerve sparing
enhanced recovery
anastomotic leakage
quality of life

Biography
Barbara Bastiaansen is working as a consultant Gastroenterologist at Amsterdam UMC sinds 2011 and focusses her work on advanced endoscopic interventions with special interest in early colorectal cancer . She is head of endoscopy at location AMC and leading the eFTR working group in the Netherlands

Keywords
Incomplete excision of T1 CRC (R1/Rx resection) is a strong risk factor for residual disease and local recurrence, varying between 6-16%
Therefore international guidelines recommend additional oncological surgical resection , even in the absence of high-risk features for LNM
However, oncological surgery for T1 CRC carries significant morbidity and mortality (23.6% and 1.7%, respectively) and the majority of patients (>80%) have no residual disease on histological evaluation of the surgical specimen
Local excision of the scar after prior incomplete resection (R1/Rx) of low-risk T1 CRC could offer an attractive minimal invasive alternative strategy

Biography
Wim P Ceelen graduated as a medical doctor in 1992 at Ghent University (Belgium) and later obtained his PhD at the same university with a doctoral thesis entitled ‘Neoadjuvant multimodal therapy in rectal cancer’. Currently, he is a staff surgeon in the department of Gastrointestinal Surgery at Ghent University Hospital and was appointed in 2010 as professor of Surgical Oncology at Ghent University. He is a Senior Clinical Investigator with the Flemish Research Foundation (FWO) and is director of the Laboratory of Experimental Surgery at Ghent University. His clinical interests include surgical oncology of the digestive tract, peritoneal metastases, and retroperitoneal sarcoma. His experimental research focuses on tumor physiology and biophysics, functional imaging of cancer, and novel approaches to intraperitoneal drug delivery. His teaching assignments include courses on Evidence Based Medicine for the surgical disciplines. He is (co)author of over 200 PubMed cited publications, edited three books, and is promoter of 13 completed and 5 ongoing PhD theses. He has served as president of the Belgian Society of Surgical Oncology and as Secretary General of the European Society for Surgical Research. He is a member of the Royal Belgian Academy of Medicine, the European Surgical Association, the EORTC GI group, the Cochrane collaboration GI group, the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO), the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO), and the American College of Surgeons. He currently serves as member of the Board of Directors of ESSO. Dr Ceelen is Editor-in -chief of Acta Chirurgica Belgica and associate editor of European Surgical Research, International Journal of Hyperthermia, Pleura and Peritoneum, and Frontiers in Surgical Oncology.

Keywords
Peritoneal metastases
tumor microenvironment
TME
intraperitoneal drug delivery

Biography
Lene H. Iversen is colorectal surgeon, professor and consultant surgeon at Aarhus University Hospital. Her clinical and research areas are in various fields of colorectal cancer and cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC. She has published more than 120 peer reviewed papers within these fields.
She chaired the Danish Colorectal Cancer Group, DCCG, the Danish Multidisciplinary Cancer Group for colorectal cancer, from 2014 to 2020. She still chairs the Surgical Group under DCCG.
In 2006, she contributed to the implementation of cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC in Denmark. All CRS and HIPEC surgeries in Denmark are performed at her institution with almost 100 completed cases per year. The Aarhus Institution is also front figure with respect to late adverse effect following cancer surgery, which is her topic today.

Keywords
Cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC
Late adverse effects
Peritoneal metastases

Biography
Issam Al-Najami colorectal surgeaon and associate professor at the department of colorectal surgery at Odense University Hospital, Denmark.
Particular interest in early rectal cancer and organ preservation, by local excision, chemo-radiotherapy as an adjunct treatment to Local excision or as a primary curative treatment in a watch and wait strategy.

Keywords
Early rectal cancer

Biography
Beatriz Carvalho is a molecular biologist with a specific interest in colorectal cancer early detection. Her research focuses on understanding the biology of adenoma to carcinoma progression and in the identification of biomarkers for early detection. Dr. Carvalho is actively involved not only in the discovery but also in the validation of the research findings in order to translate these in the clinical setting.

Keywords
Stool tests
Colorectal cancer
Screening
Surveillance

Biography
Carlo Senore, MD, MSc Epidemiology
Affiliation: Epidemiology and Screening Unit – CPO Piemonte; University Hospital Città della Salute e della Scienza, Turin.
Director, Piedmont Region cancer screening committee
President of the Italian Group for ColoRectal cancer Screening (GISCoR)
PI/coPI of comparative effectiveness studies of different CRC screening strategies, of RCTs aiming to assess the role of new screening technologies and of studies assessing the role of faecal and blood biomarkers in the development of adenomas and CRC and as potential screening tools.
Invited specialist IARC Handbooks (IARC Handbook of Cancer Prevention Vol. 17 – Colorectal Cancer Screening; Preamble to the IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention)

Keywords
Population based program
CRC screening
Risk tailored screening

Biography
Prof. Paolo Sammartino has been engaged in the treatment of Peritoneal Surface Malignancies for over 20 years. He has rich experience in Cytoreduction combined with HIPEC in the treatment of peritoneal metastases from ovarian , colorectal and gastric cancer with a personal experience of over 450 consecutively treated cases . He has published more than 100 papers in recent years mainly on Peritoneal Surface Malignancies. He will be together with Prof Marcello Deraco Chairman of the next International Congress on Peritoneal Surface Malignancies.

Keywords
Prevention peritoneal metastases colorectal cancer

Biography
As an interventional endoscopist at the LUMC, my focus is on endoscopic mucosal and submucosal resection of early neoplasia in the GI tract. Especially, research on the optimal technique for the endoscopic resection of large polyps and early neoplasia colorectal cancer has my interest and is reflected in the participations in several nationwide initiatives. Furthermore, we conduct clinical research that involves the treatment of early colorectal cancer and is mainly focused on which patients can be cured by endoscopic resection and which should referred for additional surgery.

Keywords
T1 colorectal cancer
Surveillance
Recurrence risk
Pattern of recurrence

Biography
Cesare Hassan, MD, PhD, graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 1994, and he became a specialist in Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy at ‘Sapienza University’ in Rome in 1998. His clinical and research turned mainly to the development of new approach for colorectal cancer screening, mainly focusing on clinical validation, cost-effectiveness and decision-making, as well as for prevention of upper GI-cancer, including endoscopic and medical treatment of pre-malignant gastric conditions and Barrett oesophagus. To date, his work has resulted in over 500 peer-reviewed publications, and is regularly invited to present at major national and international meetings. Dr. Hassan is currently the Treasurer of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, where he also served as Chair of the Guideline Committee, and he is Associated Professor of Gastroenterology at Humanitas University (Milan, Italy). His current research focuses on implementation of Artificial Intelligence for detection, characterization, and Quality Improvement of diagnostic endsocopy.

Keywords
colorectal cancer
surveillance
adenoma
recurrence

Biography
Jeroen van der Laak is principle investigator and professor of computational Pathology at the Department of Pathology of the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and guest professor at the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV) in Linköping, Sweden. He holds an MSc in computer science and acquired his Ph.D. from the Radboud University in Nijmegen. His research focuses on the use of deep learning for the analysis of digitized histopathological images.

Keywords
artificial intelligence
computational pathology
digital image analysis
colorectal cancer