ASGO's Second Biennial Meeting, November 3-5 2011

Abstract

Following the initial success of the Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology (ASGO) 1st Biennial Meeting Tokyo in 2009, the ASGO 2nd Biennial Meeting was held in the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Seoul from the 3 to 5 November 2011 and again, it was a resounding success. It saw active participation from 15 Asian countries as well as 5 non Asian countries (USA, UK, Canada, Germany, and Eritrea). The total number of registrants was 622 with a total of 226 abstract submissions (Table 1). Table 1 Number of presentation and registration by country during ASGO 2nd biennial meeting The theme for this year meeting was 'New Insight into Gynecologic Cancer in Asia' and the purpose was to serve as a platform for mutual exchange and sharing of the latest developments in the field of gynecologic oncology in Asia. The scientific program was very comprehensive (Fig. 1). It covers all aspects of gynecologic oncology. There were 5 plenary sessions, covering various pertinent management issues and updates in uterine, cervical, ovarian cancers and gestational trophoblastic diseases as well as a special plenary session on controversial issues in gynecologic oncology and one entire plenary session focusing on translational research. There were 3 free communication sessions and poster display with a total of 29 oral and 133 poster presentations. ASGO was also honored to have 4 renowned speakers from International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS): current President of IGCS, Shingo Fujii (Japan), Jonathan Ledermann (UK), Ginger Gardner (USA) and Jonathan Berek (USA); and another 3 from Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO): Ronald Alvarez (USA), Linus Chuang (USA), and Warner Huh (USA). Fig. 1 Attendees at the ASGO 2nd Biennial Meeting, Seoul, Korea. The meeting started off with a special session on International Collaboration of Clinical Research during which there was active sharing of current trial programs from the Gynecologic Cancer InterGroup (GCIG), Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG), Japanese Gynecologic Oncology Group (JGOG) and Korean Gynecologic Oncology Group (KGOG). This session opens up avenues for future collaboration with the aim to improve management outcome of women with gynecologic cancers in Asia. Professor Soon-Beom Kang delivered the Presidential Address on 'New Asian leadership for fighting against gynecologic cancer' highlighting the need for Asian leaders for Asian women who are a distinct group with different genetic makeup and hence different disease epidemiology and characteristics from the Western population [1]. Part of the ASGO commitment was towards the training of young gynecologic oncologists in Asia to meet the rising demand for gynecology oncology services in the region as the approximately one-half of all global cancer mortalities were still observed in Asia [1,2]. Thus, special to this year biennial meeting was an educational session focusing on surgery and surgical pathology of gynecologic malignancies from which many gynecologic oncology trainees benefited. In addition to the excellent scientific program, Professor Joo-Hyun Nam, chairman of the local organizing committee, also put together a very memorable social program for the meeting. For both the opening ceremony and the banquet, participants were enthralled with both traditional and new age Korean performances and the warmth hospitality by the hosting country, Korea, was felt deep in our hearts. ASGO continued to grow. As of the last council meeting on the 5 November 2011 held in conjunction with the 2nd biennial meeting, we saw membership grew to 224 from 18 countries. We also looked forward to receive a new council member from Malaysia. With the success of the 2nd biennial meeting, ASGO will play a major role in advancing the health care standards of Asian women with gynecologic cancers now and in the future. Congratulations to Professor Soon-Beom Kang, Joo-Hyun Nam and all organizing committee members for the great success of the ASGO 2nd biennial meeting in Seoul (Fig. 2). The 3rd biennial meeting will be held on 13-15 December 2013 in Kyoto, Japan under the direction of 2nd President of ASGO, Professor Toshiharu Kamura and Congress President, Professor Ikuo Konishi. Fig. 2 Representative members and Award winners of various Asian countries attending the ASGO 2nd Biennial Meeting.