Congress President
Yuko Kitagawa
Department of Surgery,
Keio University School of Medicine
The 15th International Gastric Cancer Congress will be held in June 2023. We are extremely honored to have the privilege of organizing the 15th meeting of this hallowed congress.
Treatment for gastric cancer has been dramatically transformed in recent years by the evolution of minimally invasive approaches and drug therapy. Minimally invasive personalized care will likely soon be within our reach through the advancement of various treatment modalities such as combination of endoscopic therapy—whose range of application to early cancers is gradually expanding—with sentinel lymph node biopsy. The successful performance of Japan’s first laparoscopic gastrectomy in 1991 helped to solidify the foundation for minimally invasive surgery in early cancer treatment, and the role of this approach has since then expanded to include advanced cancer therapy. Also, robot-assisted surgery has been a powerful tailwind for the application of minimally invasive surgery to advanced cancer, and the year 2023 promises to bring further diversification of surgical robots. IGCC 2023 will provide us with the opportunity to not only share the latest insights on the ever-evolving world of gastric cancer care, but also lay the groundwork for the forthcoming realization of completely curative, minimally invasive personalized treatment of gastric cancer.
We also plan to hold the Upper GI Summit – EGJ Cancer Consensus Conference during IGCC 2023. While advances in multimodal therapy have helped to increase successful outcomes for esophago-gastric junctional cancer, the strategies for that approach have become increasingly diverse, and the views of what constitutes the optimal strategy vary among countries and institutions. This conference will bring together EGJ cancer experts from around the world to present their positions while exploring the latest opinions on clinical questions in surgery, medical oncology, and endoscopy, with the aim of working toward a consensus for the year 2023.
I sincerely look forward to seeing you in Japan in 2023.
