Greeting
President of the 60th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Clinical Oncology
(Professor and Chairman,
Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Department of General
Surgical Science, Gunma University, Graduate School of Medicine)
It is a great honor for me to have been given the opportunity to host the 60th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Clinical Oncology (JSCO). I am deeply grateful to all the JSCO members who have granted me this opportunity, which is an honor greater than I deserve. The JSCO is an interdisciplinary society with over 16,000 members whose specialties encompass a wide range of organs and specialist medical fields, and which has made major contributions to the development of cancer treatment in Japan through its hosting of academic conferences and other activities. The late Professor Kiyoshi Inokuchi of Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyushu University, the department in which I originally trained, was involved in the JSCO from its outset, and chaired the 15th Annual Meeting. Professor Keizo Sugimachi and Professor Yoshihiko Maehara also served as its first and fourth chairmen, respectively. In particular, under Professor Maehara’s chairmanship I personally had the chance to be involved in the work of the society’s secretariat, and feel that this helped me grow and develop through my encounters with surgeons and many other doctors in different specialties. Gunma University, where I am presently employed, has also provided three previous conference presidents — Professor Masao Fujimori, who organized the 11th Annual Meeting, Professor Masahiko Nishiyama, who organized the 49th, and Professor Takashi Nakano, who organized the 54th — and Professor Nishiyama also served as the JSCO’s fifth chairman. This conference is thus deeply meaningful to me, and to be appointed Congress President has put me on my mettle.
The 60th Annual Meeting is scheduled to take place over the three days from Thursday, October 20 to Saturday, October 22, 2022 at the Kobe Convention Center.
As the theme, I have chosen “The future of cancer treatment based on bonds of trust.” It goes without saying that in the management of cancer today, appropriate care, fostering trust based on the provision of information, and multidisciplinary team medicine are all essential as cancer treatment becomes increasingly complex and sophisticated. When I took up my post in the Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, which was newly founded as part of our reforms to prevent medical accidents in Gunma University Hospital, rebuilding trust was my first mission. As we moved forward step by step toward rebuilding trust, I learned the importance of forging strong relationships with a wide range of people, and it is for this reason that I have chosen this theme.
This Annual Meeting will include programs on promoting team medicine in the cancer field, patient-engaged care, and the best way to provide information on cancer, all of which are essential to building relationships of trust with patients. In addition to these, I also hope to put together a program in which we can together look back over the work of our predecessors while considering future directions. Symposia will cover the latest topics such as the potential of AI and the changes being brought about by big data and digitization, gene panels, and robot-assisted surgery, and other plans include a joint symposium with the ASCO and ESMO.
Although it remains difficult to tell what will happen with the spread of Covid-19, we are bearing in mind the possibility of holding a hybrid meeting with both in-person and online attendance while doing our utmost to press ahead with preparations.
I look forward to seeing you in Kobe, and hope that as many of you as possible will be able to take part.
