The impact of research presented at annual gastrointestinal cancers symposium.

Abstract

757 Background: The Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancers Symposium provides a multidisciplinary forum to both present research and gain expertise in the management of GI cancers. We conducted a study to understand the research trends, publication rate and the overall impact of research presented. Methods: A bibliometric review of the conference proceedings of the Symposium from 2013-2015 was undertaken. Data collected on each abstract included author number, demographic information of the presenting author, presentation type, cancer type, research focus (multidisciplinary treatment; prevention, diagnosis and screening; translational research) and research design. A PubMed search was used to determine overall and specific publication data. Descriptive statistics were compiled. Chi-square was used to compare groups. Results: The number of abstracts presented has increased (584 in 2013, 652 in 2014 and 794 in 2015). Fraction of oral presentations by year were similar (2.0%, 2.1% and 1.8%). Median number of authors per abstract was 9 (range 1-20). The subject area in all three years was dominated by multidisciplinary treatment (mean 58.6%), followed by translational research (mean 25.5%) and lastly Prevention, Diagnosis and Screening (mean 15.8%). The most common study design was observational (mean 43.5%), followed by case series (mean 27%), clinical trial (mean 19.8%) and other (mean 9.2%). Overall, 51.5%, 46.9% and 40.4% of the abstracts presented in 2013, 2014 and 2015 were published. The median time to publication was 14.5 months (range 0-49 months). The majority of published abstracts were published in journals with impact factor (IF) < 5 (mean 66.5%) and a small percentage (mean 8.4%) of abstracts were published in high impact journals (IF > 10). Abstracts selected for oral presentation were associated with publication in a journal with high IF (p < 0.001). The presenting author was more commonly male (70%) and a medical oncologist (61.5%). Conclusions: Overall participation is increasing in the Symposium. Selection for oral presentation appeared to be a good marker for both publication and higher impact. Prevention, diagnosis, and screening studies were under-represented and clinical trials were also relatively uncommon.