Composed of some of the world’s leading experts in gastrointestinal cancer, the Scientific Committee has developed a comprehensive programme to ensure you learn and discuss the most advanced approaches known today.
Scientific Committee:
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Dr. Bazarbashi received his MBBS degree from King Saud University School of Medicine in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1982. He completed his internal medicine residency and hematology/Medical oncology fellowship at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan on 1991. He obtained his American board diploma in internal medicine in 1988 and in medical oncology in 1991 and Hematology in 1992. Dr Bazarbashi then was appointed as consultant in medical oncology at King Faisal Specialist hospital and Research center in 1991 till present. In 1998, He was appointed as head, Section of medical oncology at KFSH&RC till October 2018. In 2016, he was appointed as adjunct professor in Alfaisal University till present, and in 2021 he was appointed as acting director, Oncology center at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center.
Dr Bazarbashi served as Chairman for the Saudi Cancer Registry from 2001 till 2013. He was a founding member of the Saudi Oncology society and the deputy chairperson since 2009 to 2019. He also served as medical director for home-health care program at KFSH&RC in 2001 until 2012. Dr Bazarbashi established the GI and GU multi-disciplinary guideline groups for the Saudi Oncology Society in 2011. He has published extensively in GI and GU cancer as well as clinical guidelines, with more than 160 abstract and more than 100 publications in peer reviewed journals. He is on the editorial board of local and International journals and a reviewer for many local and international journals. He is also on the steering committee of international trials and was a member of NCCN-MENA colon cancer committee. He currently serves in addition as the chairperson of the Research Ethics committee at KFSH&RC. He is also a member of the scientific committees of the Saudi Cancer Registry, and served on the scientific committee for the Saudi National Cancer Center and many other national committees.
Haifa, Israel
Prof. Irit Ben-Aharon is the Director of the Oncology Division at Rambam Health Care Campus.
Prof. Ben-Aharon completed the MD-PhD joint program of Tel-Aviv University and the National Institute of Health's (NIH) and was awarded her PhD in developmental biology. Prof. Ben-Aharon completed her oncology training at Rabin Medical Center, followed by a fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York as a Fulbright scholar in 2014-2015 focused on gastrointestinal malignancies and young-onset cancer. Prof. Ben-Aharon returned to Israel in 2015, and led the gastrointestinal oncology at Davidoff Cancer Center, Rabin Medical Center from 2016. In 2018, she was appointed as the director of the Division of Oncology at Rambam Health Care Center, the largest tertiary medical center of Northern Israel. Prof. Ben-Aharon had been nominated as a senior member of the Israeli National Health Basket Committee for 2020. She is a member of the Israeli 8400 healthtech network.
Prof. Ben-Aharon's laboratory is located in the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion. Her main research themes involve aspects of young cancer patients – a main theme is the toxic effects of anti-cancer treatments on fertility and blood vessels and the second is the pathogenesis of early-onset GI cancers. She is actively involved in clinical and translational research within international organizations in Europe and USA and leads the young-onset cancer task force in the GITGC of the EORTC and a faculty member of ESMO gastrointestinal cancer (non-colorectal) group.
Pathology of the University of Porto (IPATIMUP)
Porto, Portugal
Fátima Carneiro is Professor of Pathology (Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto), Head of the Service of Anatomic Pathology (Centro Hospitalar Universitário São João) and Senior Researcher at Ipatimup/i3S. She was President of the European Society of Pathology (2011-2013) and President of the Portuguese Academy of Medicine (2018-2020). She was awarded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology “for an outstanding curriculum vitae” (2005) and received the Order of “Infante D. Henrique” (Grand Officer) awarded by the President of Republic "for outstanding services to science" (2006). She was nominated as “The most influential pathologist in the world" in 2018 (by “The Pathologist”). She is (co)author of more than 400 peer-reviewed publications (h index: 78) and 26 book chapters, including books issued by the IARC and the UICC. She was co-editor of the WHO Blue Book on “Tumours of the Digestive System” (4th edition) and standing member of the Editorial Board of the WHO Classification of Tumours series (5th edition) (2018–2020). Her research is focused on the etiopathogenesis and molecular pathology of gastric cancer.
University of Valencia
Hospital Clínico de Valencia
Valencia, Spain
Prof. Andrés Cervantes is the Scientific Director of INCLIVA Biomedical Research Institute, where he also coordinates the Cancer Research Area. He leads the Medical Oncology Department at the University Hospital of Valencia and is Professor of Medicine at the University of Valencia.
His research is focused on gastrointestinal tumors and developing innovative cancer treatments. His latest studies address the role of liquid biopsy as a tool for precision medicine in Oncology. He conceives research as a service to society, in that by improving our understanding of and looking for potential solutions to health issues we can guarantee a better future.
He is currently participating in research projects funded by the national Carlos III Health Institute, the Ministry of Health and the European Union, as well as by other public and private entities.
He is particularly involved in training new oncologists and young clinical researchers to facilitate the connection between science and knowledge in health care. He has supervised more than 15 doctoral PhD theses and is an author of more than 550 scientific publications in international indexed journals. He has been included in the Clarivate Analytics list of most cited researchers of the year 2021.
He is the leading author of the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Advanced Colorectal Cancer (2022) of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) and co-author of the Esophageal Cancer Guidelines. He is also editor-in-chief of Cancer Treatment Reviews and an associate editor of Annals of Oncology and ESMO OPEN.
Warsaw, Poland
Professor Andrzej Deptala, MD, PhD
Head of the Department of Oncology Propaedeutics of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Medical University of Warsaw.
Member of the Senate of the Medical University of Warsaw.
Member of the Council of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Medical University of Warsaw.
Member of the Health Sciences Discipline Council of the Medical University of Warsaw.
Member of the Scientific Council of the National Medicines Institute.
Member of the Scientific Council of the Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.
2019-2020 Chairman of the Health Sciences Discipline Council of the Medical University of Warsaw.
2016-2019 Deputy Rector for Human Resources of the Medical University of Warsaw.
2012-2016 Deputy Dean for the Division of Public Health of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Medical University of Warsaw.
2005-2022 Chairman of the Department of Oncology and Hematology at Central Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of Interior and Administration in Warsaw.
Board certificate specialist in internal diseases, hematology and clinical oncology.
Doctor of medical sciences, awarded on May 24, 1995 by the Scientific Council of the First Faculty of Medicine of the Medical Academy in Warsaw, based on the dissertation entitled "The importance of immunophenotyping in the detection of minimal residual disease in acute leukemias".
Doctor habilitated in medical sciences in the field of internal medicine, hematology and oncology based on scientific achievements and the presented habilitation thesis entitled "Apoptosis and the cell cycle as targets in the anti-cancer strategy", resolution of the Scientific Council of the First Faculty of Medicine of the Medical Academy in Warsaw, May 22, 2002.
The academic title of full professor of medical sciences, for the entirety of scientific, didactic and organizational achievements, nominated by the President of the Republic of Poland on February 17, 2015.
Awarded many times by the Rector of the Medical University of Warsaw with scientific, didactic, organizational and special awards. He is also a laureate of the Minister of Health's awards for teaching and scientific achievements, as well as the awards of the Director of the National Institute of Public Health - National Research Institute.
Author and co-author of scientific publications that have appeared in prestigious scientific journals including, inter alia, Cytometry, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, American Journal of Pathology, Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, AntiCancer Drugs, Acta Haematologica Polonica, Leukemia Research, Vox Sanguinis, Bone Marrow Transplantation, British Journal of Haematology, Lancet Oncology, International Journal of Oncology, British Journal of Cancer, Cancer, Annals of Oncology, Contemporary Oncology, Oncotarget, Polish Archives of Internal Medicine, Polish Journal of Endocrinology, Breast, Archives of Medical Science, Advances of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Health Policy, International Journal of Infectious Diseases, Antioxidant & Redox Signaling, Cancers. In addition, the author and co-author of written chapters in published scientific textbooks and papers presented at national as well as international meetings and congresses.
Scientific editor of certain books: "Oncology in practice", recommended by the Polish Society of Family Medicine; "Colorectal cancer" 2012 and 2017; "Hematological problems in cancer patients"; "Oncology in the practice of a family doctor"; "Oncology. Handbook for medical students and a help for doctors specializing in oncology” 2019 and 2021.
As the Principal Investigator participated in over 40 international and multi-centre clinical trials, mainly phase III, the most important of which concerned the treatment of lung cancer, treatment of colorectal cancer, treatment of ovarian cancer, treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, treatment of follicular lymphoma, treatment of indolent lymphoma, treatment of metastatic gastric cancer, treatment of metastatic kidney cancer, treatment of castration resistant prostate cancer, treatment of hormone dependent breast cancer, treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, treatment of multiple myeloma, treatment of advanced bladder cancer, treatment of potentially resectable and locally advanced pancreatic cancer.
Full member of the following scientific organizations and editorial offices of nationwide scientific journals:
• Polish Society of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine (PTHiT) (1988 – present)
• Chairman of the Warsaw Branch of PTHiT (1988-1995)
• Member of the Main Board of PTHiT (1995-1999)
• International Society of Haematology (ISH) (1988 – present)
• Polish Adult Leukemia Group (PALG) (1989 – present)
• Secretary of the Experimental Hematology Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1999-2005)
• Polish Lymphoma Research Group (PLRG) (1999 – present)
• Polish Society of Clinical Oncology (PTOK) (2000 – present)
• European Blood and Marrow Transplant Group (EBMT) (2000 - present)
• European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) (2002 – present)
• American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (2004 – present)
• American Society of Hematology (ASH) (2007 – present)
• Since 2005 - Scientific Council of the Contemporary Oncology journal
• Since 2005 - Scientific Council of the Journal of Experimental and Clinical Medicine
• Since 2008 - Scientific Council of the journal Medycyna Praktyczna - Onkologia
• Since 2010 - Scientific Council of the journal Hematologia
• Since 2011 - Scientific Council of the Oncoreview magazine
• Since 2021 - Section Editor of Oncology & Hematology of the journal Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine
Bellinzona, Switzerland
Dr Sara De Dosso is the Deputy-Head of the Medical Oncology Department at the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland (IOSI) in Bellinzona, Switzerland, where she is in charge of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Unit.
She received her medical degree from the Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy (2002). She completed her specialist training in medical oncology at the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan (2006), and she moved to Switzerland in 2007. Her research career and clinical practice are focused on gastrointestinal cancer.
In 2011 she spent a 6-months period at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, with the specific focus on early phase 1 trials on gastrointestinal cancers.
In 2020 she has been appointed Private Docent (PD) at the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI) in Lugano.
She currently serves as Vice-president of the GI group of the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK), and as scientific adviser for gastrointestinal cancer for the European School of Oncology (ESO).
She is the chair of the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Gastrointestinal cancer (CAS-GI), a post-graduate academic collaboration between ESO and USI.
Gustave Roussy
Paris, France
Michel Ducreux, MD, PhD, is head of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Unit and Gastrointestinal Oncology Tumor Board at Gustave Roussy, and professor of oncology at Paris-Saclay University in France. He trained in medicine, gastroenterology, and gastrointestinal tract oncology at the University of Paris Sud, and holds a masters degree in biological sciences and a PhD in health sciences. He has held positions as assistant physician and professor of oncology at the Gastrointestinal Unit of Gustave Roussy and Paul Brousse Hospital in Villejuif. He was medical affairs director of Gustave Roussy from January 2011 to December 2019. He is the former chair of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer Group, and is the former chair of the Gastrointestinal Group of the French Federation of Anticancer Centers (Unicancer – PRODIGE group). He is co-editor for gastrointestinal oncology of the European Journal of Cancer.
Professor Ducreux has published more than 500 scientific articles, with papers for which he was lead author, focussing on the management of metastatic colorectal cancer, locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic carcinoma, biliary tract carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and treatment of neuroendocrine tumors. Further to this, Professor Ducreux is author to over 200 invited lectures in various national and international congresses.
Tennessee, United States
Cathy Eng, MD, FACP, FASCO, Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology, is the David H. Johnson Endowed Chair of Surgical and Medical Oncology, Co-Director of GI Oncology and the Co-Leader of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Program, Director of the new Young Adults Cancers Program, and the Chair, Developmental Research Program for the GI SPORE, at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. She served as the Ambassador for the American Cancer Society ResearcHERS campaign in Nashville (2020-2022). She is currently the Director for Strategic Relations for Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. She has served on the Scientific Review Committee and remains on the Clinical Trials Shared Resource Oversite Committee. She is a highly sought mentor and served on the Vanderbilt-Ingram Mentorship Council and is currently a mentor on the T-32 grant and serves as a Professional Development Mentor. She continues to assume leadership positions devoted to development of phase I-III clinical trials using novel therapeutics for biomarker discovery and enhanced drug utilization in colorectal, appendiceal and anal cancer patients.
Nationally, Dr. Eng has also been highly active serving on ASCO, ECOG, and SWOG. She has served on multiple committees for ASCO including the Career Development Committee, Education Committee for Colorectal Cancer; ASCO Scientific Program Committee Track Leader for the Gastrointestinal Cancer-Colorectal/Liver Track and served on the Steering Committee 2012-2015. She is the former Chairman of the Scientific Program Committee of the ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium from 2012-2013 and Chairman, Steering Committee, GI Cancers Symposium 2016. She was chosen for the ASCO Leadership Development Program and served on the ASCO Government Relations Committee; worked with the ASCO Cancer Prevention Committee on the consensus statement regarding HPV vaccination; served on the ASCO Nausea and Vomiting Guidelines Committee, ASCO Taxonomy Task Force, ASCO Social Media Committee, and is currently on the ASCO Colorectal Guidelines Committee, ASCO Scientific Program Committee (Colorectal Cancer Track) and the ASCO Communications Committee. She was the co-chair of the SWOG Rectal/Anal Cancer Subcommittee and was the Vice-Chair for the SWOG GI Committee. She was the Chairman of the NCI Rectal/Anal Task Force (two terms), served on the NCI GI Steering Committee, and is now the co-Chair of the NCI GI Steering Committee.
She has published in many peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet Oncology, Nature Review, JNCI, Annals of Oncology, Cancer, and Annals of Surgical Oncology. She has previously received an NCI grant “Administrative Supplements to the institutional CCSG grant to Support Biomarker Studies Associated with NCI-supported Clinical Trials of Immunotherapy”. She was a co-PI for the MD Anderson Moonshot for HPV-Associated Malignancies (Section Lead for the Rare Cancers subsection) and continues to serve as a grant reviewer on the MD Anderson Colorectal Cancer Moonshot Grant and the Sabine award. She has served as a consultant to the FDA and AHRQ, Cancer Research UK: Training & Career Development Board - Clinician Scientist Fellowship, the Italian Association for Cancer Research, the Dutch Digestive Foundation, the Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) - Farrah Fawcett Foundation Joint Scientific Advisory Committee (JSAC) and the SWOG Impact Award.
Health Network Vienna
Vienna, Austria
Professor Gruenberger received his medical degree in 1991 at the University of Vienna. He underwent his surgical training at the University Hospital Vienna and different general surgical Departments in Austria. After he received his surgical license in general and transplant surgery Prof Gruenberger specialized in HPB Surgery and underwent a fellowship at the University of New South Wales, Syd-ney, Australia, where he held the position of a Senior Lecturer in General Surgery and Vice-Chair of the Liver Unit, St. George Hospital. Currently he is Chair of the HPB center of the health network Vienna and heads the surgical Department of the Clinic Favoriten. He additionally holds the Chair of HPB-Surgery at the Sigmund Freud University, Vienna.
Professor Gruenberger has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and more than 150 other texts or chapters in books on gastrointestinal cancer and he-patobiliary tumors. His work has appeared in respected journals such as the Lancet, Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology, Eu-ropean Journal of Cancer, British Journal of Cancer, Cancer, Clinical Cancer re-search, European Journal of Surgical Oncology, Annals of Surgery, British Jour-nal of Surgery, Journal of Hepatology and Hepatology. He is Editor of a book on the treatment of liver metastases and Co-Editor of a book on Surgical Oncology.
Professor Gruenberger is a member of several international academic societies with specific oncological interest, including the International - and European-Af-rican- Hepato Pancreato Biliary Association (IHPBA, E-AHPBA), the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), the European Organisa-tion of Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and many national organiza-tions including the Austrian Society of Surgical Oncology (ASSO).
Professor Gruenberger is past President of the Austrian Society of Surgical On-cology and serves as the National Delegate of the Division of HPB Surgery in the UEMS Section of Surgery. He is board member of the European Society of Med-ical Oncology and the European Society of Digestive Oncology (ESDO). He is As-sociate- Editor of the Annals of Surgical Oncology and Advisory Board Member of the European Journal of Surgical Oncology. He is a scientific reviewer of numer-ous surgical, oncological and basic science journals.
Sorbonne Université
Paris, France
Pr Florence Huguet – Paris, France
Radiation Oncologist, MD, PhD, Professorof Oncology at Sorbonne University, Head of the Radiotherapy Oncology Department at Tenon Hospital, AP-HP. Sorbonne University, Paris.
After a first cycle of medical studies in Montpellier, Florence Huguet did her residency in oncology in Paris. She began to practice radiation oncology in the Radiation Oncology department at Tenon Hospital, in Paris, where she was then appointed as a full professor and head of the department. Her clinical and research activities focus on HNSCC and GI tumors, areas in which her expertise is internationally recognized. She spent a year at Memorial Sloan Ketternig in New York City doing research on pancreatic cancer treatment.
She teaches at the Sorbonne University. She is the president of the Collège National des Enseignants de Cancérologie.
She holds a PhD in radiobiology. She is the author of more than 100 referenced publications.
Madrid, Spain
Dr Angela Lamarca is a Medical Oncologist (MD, PhD, MSc), specialised in gastrointestinal malignancies (hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) and neuroendocrine tumours (NETs)). She completed her training in Medical Oncology (including her PhD) in Spain (Hospital Universitario La Paz, Madrid). She moved to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust (Manchester, United Kingdom) in 2013, where she completed a 4-year fellowship programme in HPB and NETs. Dr Lamarca has completed a Masters Degree in Molecular Biology of Cancer and a second Masters Degree in Biostatistics. She was awarded with an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award in 2017 and was appointed as a Consultant in Medical Oncology at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in May 2018 where she practiced until May 2022, when she moved back to Madrid (Spain; Fundacion Jimenez Diaz University Hospital) to continue her clinical and research activities in HPB and NETs. Dr Angela Lamarca is co-chair of Hepato-Biliary Task Force of the EORTC Gastrointestinal Cancer Group, a member of the ENETS Advisory board and a faculty member of the ESMO Non-Colorectal Gastrointestinal Cancer group.
Paris, France
Pierre Laurent-Puig is Professor of Oncology at Université Paris Cité. He is the Head of the Genomics and Cancer Department at the Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers; Since 2012, he is Director of the SIRIC CARPEM and, from 2020 Director of the Institut du Cancer Paris CARPEM developed a research on personalized medicine in oncology defined new markers for the prediction of response to different therapeutic option in digestive cancer.
Leipzig, Germany
Florian Lordick is a Full Professor of Medicine at the University of Leipzig, Germany. He was appointed as director of the University Cancer Center Leipzig in 2012, which recently was awarded and funded as one of 15 German Oncology Cenetrs of Excellence by the German Cancer Aid. He also chairs the Department of Medicine II (oncology, gastroenterology, hepatology, pulmonology, and infectious diseases) at the Leipzig University Medical Center.
He currently holds the position of Director of Education of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). He is also the immediate past-president of the International Gastric Cancer Association (IGCA) and immediate former chairman of the EORTC GI Tract Cancer Working Group.
Dr. Lordick’s scientific focus is on clinical and translational research in immuno-oncology and targeted treatment of cancer, with a specific focus on gastrointestinal tract tumors. He has a great interest and experience in multimodality treatment of GI cancers. His research is funded by the German Cancer Aid, the German Ministry of Education and Research and by the European Commission. Dr. Lordick has authored and co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed and PubMed-listed articles. His h-index is 84. He is deputy-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology (Springer), the official scientific journal of the German Cancer Society. He also works as associated editor for Gastric Cancer (Springer), the official scientific journal of IGCA and for ESMO Open (Elsevier), official scientific journal of ESMO.
Barcelona, Spain
Teresa Macarulla, MD, PhD, received her medical degree from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain. Afterwards, she completed her specialist training in medical oncology and has had appointments in Barcelona.
Dr Macarulla is currently a physician in the Medical Oncology Department at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Dr Macarulla is also the head of the GI Cancer Program Unit since April 2017. She is working in the gastrointestinal tumors team. She is involved in translational research and pharmacodynamic phase I studies with molecular targeted therapies and related translational research, with a special focus on EGFR inhibitors. She is also involved in phase II and III studies with new chemotherapy agents in gastrointestinal tumors, with special interest in hepatobiliopancreatic tumors.
Dr Macarulla is the author of numerous publications, many focusing on hepatobiliopancreatic tumors and new drugs, and she has authored communications at different conferences. She actively participates in the development of national and international clinical investigations, especially in relation to drugs directed against molecular targets, as well as clinical investigations for new chemotherapy agents. Dr Macarulla is also an ad hoc reviewer for various oncology journals.
In addition, Dr Macarulla is an active member of the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology, European Society for Medical Oncology, and American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Naples, Italy
Erika Martinelli is an Associate Professor in Medical Oncology, Department of Precision Medicine, Università degli Studi della Campania L. Vanvitelli in Naples, She was awarded her degree as specialist in Medical Oncology in 2004 and her PhD in 2008. Prof Martinelli from 2003 to 2005 joined the Phase 1 and Developmental therapeutics at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona Spain. Her research interest includes the development of new targeted agents against growth factors in a preclinical and early clinical studies mainly in colorectal cancer. In particular defining the possible biological markers of intrinsic or acquired resistance to treatments. She is an active member of ESMO (European Society of Medical Oncology), AIOM (Associazione Italiana di Oncolgia Medica)amd GOIM (Gruppo Oncologico dell’Italia Meridionale). She Subject Editor of gastrointestinal guidelines of ESMO since 2018.
She has published more than 187 peer-reviewed manuscript articles and book chapters and is a reviewer for many scientific journals.
Brno, Czech Republic
Radka Obermannova MD, PhD is an assistant professor of medical oncology and a senior consultant at the Department of Comprehensive Cancer Care at Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute in Brno, Czech Republic. She completed her medical studies at Masaryk University in Brno and then went on to the PhD program on vitamin D levels' role in metastatic colorectal cancer outcomes. Her scientific focus on GI cancer provided her with inspiration for a subsequent research career, namely in her interest in the optimization of multimodal gastric cancer treatment involving predictors of treatment response.
She was a head physician of the GI inpatient ward and since 2012 has also been a chief physician of a Phase I unit. In 2019 she has appointed a deputy chair of science and research at the Department of Comprehensive Cancer Care. She is involved in drug development as a principal investigator and co-investigator of clinical trials. Dr Obermannova is a co-author of national guidelines on oesophageal and gastric cancer and she is also a co-author of ESMO oesophageal cancer treatment guidelines. Dr Obermannova is a member of the ESMO educational committee in GI cancers and the co-chair of the Individualized Therapy Task Force at EORTC Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer Working Group, a member of the International Gastric Cancer Association (IGCA) and Czech Society of Oncology.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Juan Manuel O'Connor is currently the Head of the Department of Gastrointestinal Tumors at Instituto Alexander Fleming, a position he has held since 2015. He was assistant professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the School of Medicine of the Instituto Universitario CEMIC, Buenos Aires. Current Associate Professor of Clinical Oncology at Instituto Alexander Fleming. He is a founding member of the Argentine Group of Neuroendocrine Tumors (ARGENTUM), created in 2005. He has been a member of the Advisory Board of the European Society of Neuroendocrine Tumors, ENETS since 2008, and an active member of ASCO since 2011. Master in Molecular Oncology, CNIO (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas, Madrid. He was part of Scientific Committee of WORLD CONGRESS ON GI CANCER, ESMO 2021, 2022. Dr O´Connor has authored over 50 papers and chapters of books about gastrointestinal tumors. He received several international awards for his work in the area of Neuroendocrine Tumors. He has participated in more than 200 national and international events as a speaker. Dr O´Connor also served as a consultant to the National Cancer Institute in Argentina, and was involved in the development of the Clinical Practice Guidelines in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer in Argentina, in 2014, and Screening in Colorectal Cancer, New Consensus Guidelines 2022, as a member from Asociación Argentina de Oncologia Clínica, AAOC.
New York, United States
Eileen M. O’Reilly holds the Winthrop Rockefeller Endowed Chair in Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK). She serves as the Section Head for Hepatopancreaticobiliary/ Neuroendocrine Cancers, Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, Co-Director for Medical Initiatives at the David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer and is an Attending Physician and Member at MSK and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.
Dr. O’Reilly received her medical degree at Trinity College in Ireland. She completed her postgraduate training in Ireland and subsequent Hematology/Oncology Fellowship training at MSK. Dr. O’Reilly is a clinical scientist whose research focus involves integration of molecular and genetic-based therapies for pancreas cancer along with development of adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatments and identification of biomarkers for therapy selection. Dr. O’Reilly teaches and mentors junior faculty, oncology fellows, residents and medical/other students and has numerous teaching and other awards. Dr. O’Reilly is the Principal Investigator of multiple phase I, II, III trials in pancreas cancer and has authored/co-authored > 350 articles, editorials, and book chapters. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Senior Editor for several other journals and has served on multiple grant review panels including, for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), NIH, DOD, and various international entities. She is the PI of the MSK Pancreas Specialized Program in Oncology Research Excellence (SPORE), an NCI funded team science grant. Dr. O’Reilly is the recipient of numerous awards including the Burkitt Medal (TCD) in 2022.
Dr. O’Reilly’s other responsibilities include, Chair of the Institutional Review & Privacy Board (IRB) and Chair of the Continuing Medical Education committee at MSK. Nationally, Dr. O’Reilly is Co-Chair of the NCI Alliance Co-Operative Group Gastrointestinal Cancers Committee and serves on the NCI Gastrointestinal Cancers Steering Committee (GISC), Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, and the Board of the National Pancreas Foundation.
Nicosia, Cyprus
Demetris Papamichael is Director of Medical Oncology at the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre in Nicosia, a post he has held since 1999. He is an Associate Professor at St. George’s Hospital / Medical School, University of London (UNIC Campus). He obtained his medical degree from Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, Imperial College, London in 1988. Dr Papamichael trained in internal medicine and obtained his Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) in 1992. His subsequent training in Medical Oncology was completed at the Royal Marsden and St Bartholomew’s Hospitals both in London. Dr Papamichael is an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Merit Award winner. He is an active researcher and has been an investigator in a number of Industry sponsored studies, as well as clinical trials coordinated by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and the United Kingdom Medical Research Council / National Cancer Research Institute.
Dr Papamichael’s main clinical and research interests include gastrointestinal cancer, and cancer in the elderly. He has published his work in peer-reviewed international journals. He is a member of ASCO, the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), and the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). He is a member of the ESMO Gastrointestinal Tumour Faculty and co-chairman of an ESMO/SIOG Cancer in the Elderly Working Group. Dr Papamichael is actively involved in the organisation and teaching of courses run by the European School of Oncology (ESO) and is a member of the Scientific Committee of the School.
Odense, Denmark
Per Pfeiffer, MD, PhD, is currently Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, Head of Clinical Research Unit and the Digestive Oncology Unit at department of Oncology, Odense University Hospital, Denmark.
Prof. Per Pfeiffer obtained his degree of MD and PhD at the University of Southern Denmark. Per Pfeifer trained in internal medicine, surgery and oncology in Odense and Aarhus, Denmark and became consultant in Digestive Oncology at department of Oncology, Odense University Hospital in 1998.
His research interests include primarily clinical cancer research in patients with gastrointestinal cancer, primarily colorectal, gastric and pancreatic cancer.
He has a large clinical activity in Odense, Denmark and is involved and leads National and Nordic clinical and translational research projects on gastrointestinal cancer.
He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles (H-factor 50) in prestigious journals including Lancet Oncolology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology, British Journal of Cancer and European Journal of Cancer, and given more than 100 congress presentations and lectures on gastrointestinal cancer. Dr. Pfeiffer is member of ESMO and the Nordic Colorectal Cancer Biomodulation Group, he is chairman of the Danish Pancreatic Cancer Group and is recent past chairman of the Danish Colorectal Oncology Group. He serves as co-editor and reviewer for several oncology journals.
Most recently he planned, conducted and published/presented two Nordic randomized trials (Nordic 8 and Nordic 9) and one Danish randomized trial in metastatic colorectal cancer (Danish Lonsurf trial).
Vienna, Austria
Dr. Gerald Prager is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna and Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Program of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Medical University of Vienna and Comprehensive Cancer Center Vienna. Furthermore, he leads the Unit for Precision Medicine in Cancer. Dr. Prager is a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) and he is Committee Member of Experts of the Joint Research Centre / European Commission. He is active in organizing international meetings on this topic, such as the World Conference in GI-Cancer of ESMO.
After he graduated at the Medschool of the University of Vienna (MUV), he received a Postdoctoral Training at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In 2012 Dr. Prager became an Associate Professor. He was a Visiting Professor at the Norris Cancer Center, University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles.
The research interest of his group is focused on tumor-angiogenesis and biomarker research to predict treatment efficacy in gastrointestinal tract cancers. His work honoured by more than 20 research awards. Through his clinical training for hemato-oncology, he became a member of the sought after group of medical researches. Dr Prager’s research group is embedded in an international cancer research campus associated with MUV. His work is honoured by more than 20 international awards.
Beijing, China
Prof. Lin Shen - Peking University Cancer Hospital.
Director of the Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology and Phase I Clinical Trial Ward
Former Vice President of Peking University Cancer Hospital and Beijing Institute for Cancer Research
Beijing Scholar
Chairman of Cancer Precision Therapy Professional Committee, China Anti-cancer Association (CACA)
First Chairman of Anti-Cancer Drug Clinical Study Professional Committee, China Anti-cancer Association (CACA)
Chairman of Clinical Research Expert Committee, Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO)
Designated Chairman of Gastric Cancer Expert Committee, Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO)
Vice Chairman of Colorectal Cancer Association, China Anti-cancer Association (CACA)
Rotating Chairman of the Council of Beijing Cancer Prevention & Treatment Society
Chiba, Japan
Dr Kohei Shitara is a Chief of Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa in Japan. He received his medical degree from Tohoku University School of Medicine in 2002. Dr Shitara is an active member of ASCO and ESMO. He is working as one of the ESMO faculty member for Gastrointestinal Tumors, Upper digestive faculty group for the period 2021-2025. He is one of the organising members for Japanese gastric cancer treatment guidelines. Main research interests include development of new anti-cancer agents, optimal chemotherapy regimen for gastrointestinal cancer, and translational research. He is the primary investigator or study coordinator of several sponsor-initiated trials or investigator-initiated trials for gastric or colorectal cancer. He acts as one of steering committee members of several ongoing global studies in the field of GI cancers. He has reported more than 200 peer review publications which include approximately 100 articles as 1st author or corresponding author in major journals (NEJM, Lancet, Nature, etc.). He was recognised as one of a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate in 2022.
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Elizabeth (Lizzy) Smyth is an consultant in gastrointestinal oncology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Dr Smyth commenced her oncology training in Dublin, Ireland. In 2009 she was awarded an Irish Society of Medical Oncology fellowship to train at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Centre, New York. Following this she worked at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London from 2011-2018. Her research focus is on clinical trials and translational research in gastroesophageal cancer and she has worked on trial design and management of national and international trials. She is a member of the European Society of Medical Oncology Faculty GI educational faculty and leads the EORTC GI Trials Group Gastric Cancer Taskforce. Dr Smyth is committed to furthering national and international collaboration in GI trials research.
Vall d’Hebron University Hospital
Barcelona, Spain
Josep Tabernero holds MD and PhD degrees from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, and he is currently Head of the Medical Oncology Department at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Director of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and Professor of Medicine at UVic-UCC. He has been Principal Investigator of several Phase I pharmacodynamic studies and translational projects with tumor-directed targeted therapies and immune-based therapies.
His research aims at potentiating molecular therapies targeting specific oncoproteins and accelerating more effective personalized cancer medicines for patients displaying genetic lesions or pathway disregulation.
Dr. Tabernero serves on the Editorial Boards of various top tier journals including Annals of Oncology, ESMO Open, Cancer Discovery, Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Treatment Reviews, and Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. He has (co) authored approximately 500 peer-reviewed papers with an H-Index of 95.
He was the President (2018 – 2019) of the European Society for Medical Oncology´s (ESMO). He is also member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). He has also been a member of the Educational and Scientific Committees of ESMO, ASCO, AACR, AACR/NCI/EORTC, ASCO Gastrointestinal, TAT and ESMO-GI/WCGIC meetings.
University Hospitals Leuven/KU Leuven
Leuven, Belgium
Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD, is full professor and Division Head of Digestive Oncology at University Hospitals Gasthuisberg & KULeuven, Belgium.
He is a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine and president of the Belgian Foundation against Cancer (Stichting tegen Kanker; Fondation contre le Cancer).
In 2018 he became doctor honoris causa of the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland and received several national and international awards, amongst which were in 2019 the ESMO Award and the European Awards in Medicine for Cancer Research.
He published extensively: >675 articles in PubMed and more than 1515 according Thomson Web of Science, leading to more than 102.000 citations and an H-factor of 140. His research interests are various aspects of Gastrointestinal and Digestive cancers (colorectal, gastric, pancreas, bile duct, esophageal cancer and neuroendocrine tumors). He serves on many industry advisory boards for new anti-cancer drugs and treatment modalities and Independent Data Monitoring Committee of clinical trials.
He co-founded and is chair of ESMO GI/World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona, Spain. He serves/served on the board or key committee of ESMO (European Society Medical Oncology; executive board, several committees), UEG (United European Gastroenterology; educational committee, public affairs committee, scientific committee), ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology; program committee, international affairs committee), ENET (European NeuroEndocrine Society; advisory board), EORTC (European Organisation Research Treatment Cancer; executive board, chair of GI Cancer group), ECO (European Cancer Organisation; program committee), ESDO (European Society Digestive Oncology; president), ESO (European School of Oncology; Scientific council) and of patient advocacy groups EuropaColon (medical director) and Digestive Cancers Europe (DICE; co-founder, executive board) and the Foundation Engie (CSR) France & Belgium.
He was chairman of the governmental colon cancer prevention task force in Flanders, Belgium, was/is in Belgian active as president and treasurer of Belgian Group Digestive Oncology and as president/vice-president of Familial Polyposis Association (FAPA).
He is/was member of the Scientific Advisory board for different international hospitals/cancer centers: Institut National du Cancer (INCA), Toulouse & Paris, France; University of Ulm & Leipzig, Germany; Humanitas Hospital, Milan & Avignon, France and is member of the board of directors of the regional hospital of Halle, Belgium.
He is member of the governmental commission of recognition for specialists in gastroenterology/ digestive oncology.