The 5th Biennial Meeting of the Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology, November 30th to December 2nd, 2017.

The 5th Biennial Meeting of the Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology (ASGO) was held at the Otemachi Sankei Plaza in Tokyo, Japan from 30th of November to 2nd of December, 2017 (Program & Abstracts of 5th Biennial Meeting of the ASGO available at https://ejgo.org/src/5th-Biennial-Meeting-2017.pdf). A congress president, Daisuke Aoki, a professor of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Keio University School of Medicine, Japan, led this Biennial Meeting to a great success with a total of 588 attendees from 18 countries all over the world (Table 1, Fig. 1). Highlights of the scientific program were the presidential lecture, 4 invited lectures, and 9 Symposia, as outlined below.

Table 1

Number of participants by country

Country	Number	Presentation
		Lecture	Oral	Poster	Film	Total
Japan	270	60	20	68	12	160
Taiwan	68	4	4	21	0	29
South Korea	67	22	6	13	2	43
Thailand	48	1	4	12	1	18
Philippines	35	1	1	2	0	4
Indonesia	30	1	2	16	0	19
China	34	6	10	15	1	32
Hong Kong	9	2	0	2	0	4
Singapore	9	2	1	2	0	5
India	5	2	1	1	1	5
Israel	1	0	0	1	0	1
Malaysia	3	1	0	1	0	2
USA	3	1	0	0	0	1
France	2	1	0	0	0	1
Australia	1	1	0	0	0	0
Denmark	1	1	0	0	0	0
Nepal	1	0	1	0	0	1
United Kingdom	1	0	0	0	0	0
Total	588	106	50	154	17	325

Fig. 1

The main venue for the 5th Biennial Meeting of ASGO.

ASGO, Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology.

Professor Ikuo Konishi made a presidential lecture about ‘Surgery for recurrent gynecologic cancer’ in the afternoon of the first day of the meeting. In his lecture, he summarized the clinical guidelines of treatment of recurrent cancers with a special emphasis on the importance of surgical modality such as pelvic exenteration in recurrent cervical cancer or debulking operation in recurrent ovarian cancer with careful selection of the patients. He concluded that treatment for recurrent cancer should be individualized for the possibility of chance of cure. There were 8 invited speakers who gave lectures in total of 4 invited lecture sessions, 2 speakers in each session (Fig. 2): Dr. Duk-Soo Bae (Korea), ‘Translational model for precision medicine in gynecologic cancer’ and Dr. Michael Anthony Quinn (Australia), ‘Global teaching and training in gynecological oncology’; Dr. Yutaka Kawakami (Japan), ‘Immunobiology and Immunotherapy for gynecological cancers’ and Dr. Robert L. Coleman (USA), ‘NRG-GOG Clinical Trial Group’; Dr. Aikou Okamoto (Japan), ‘Update on clear cell carcinoma of ovary’ and Dr. Mansoor Raza Mirza (Denmark), ‘Role of PARP inhibitors in ovarian cancer’; Dr. Ernst Lengyel (USA), ‘The biology of ovarian cancer’ and Dr. Fabrice Lécuru (France), ‘Sentinel navigation surgery for cervical cancer’. The 9 symposia in which a total of 38 speakers gave their presentations in the fields of their main interests covering extensive and robotic surgery, precision medicine, minimally invasive surgery, immune system and gynecologic cancers, cervical cancer screening in Asia, update of therapeutic strategy for ovarian cancer, management of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer in Asia, fertility-sparing strategy, and update of endometrial cancer. In every symposium, vigorous debate ensued.

Fig. 2

Speakers of presidential lecture and invited lectures.

From upper left clockwise, Drs. Ikuo Konishi (Japan, the president of ASGO), Duk-Soo Bae (Korea), Michael Anthony Quinn (Australia), Yutaka Kawakami (Japan), Fabrice Lécuru (France), Ernst Lengyel (USA), Mansoor Raza Mirza (Denmark), Aikou Okamoto (Japan), and Robert L. Coleman (USA).

In addition, there were 3 Young Doctors' Sessions where 15 young presenters in total made presentations: 2 each from China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and Thailand; 1 each from India, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan. In the second day morning of the meeting, we had 2 morning lectures with 1 presenter for each: Dr. Kimio Ushijima (Japan), ‘Treatment strategy for young women with ovarian cancer’; Dr. Suk-Joon Chang (Korea), ‘Role of robotic surgery in gynecologic cancer’. In an educational lecture, Dr. Yoshiki Mikami (Japan) and Dr. Kei Kawana (Japan) gave lectures on ‘Current concepts and controversies in gynecologic pathology’ and ‘Developments of novel HPV therapeutic vaccine: mucosal immunotherapy of HPV-targeting therapy of treatment of high-grade CIN’, respectively. There were also 36 oral presentations, 198 poster exhibitions, 17 film exhibitions and 5 industrial lunchtime seminars with 6 presenters.

The 13th ASGO Council Meeting was held at the Royal Park Hotel on Friday, December 1 (Fig. 3). Rongyu Zang (China) became a new council member and we had total of 2 from China from then on. David SP Tan (Singapore) took over the position of Yin Nin Chia (Singapore) and became a new council member after her. And, Neerja Bhatla (India) was recommended to replace Uma Devi (India). Professor Hee-Sug Ryu took over the President of ASGO from professor Ikuo Konishi and presided over the last part of the council meeting. Professor Daisuke Aoki was elected as President-elect.

Fig. 3

A group photo of the 13th ASGO council meeting (December 1, 2017, Royal Park Hotel, Tokyo).

From upper left clockwise, Chunling Chen (China), Efrén Javier Domingo (Philippines), Dong Hoon Suh (Korea), Kimio Ushijima (Japan), Suresh Kumarasamy (Malaysia), Hextan YS Ngan (Hong Kong), Nobuo Yaegashi (Japan), Kung-Liahng Wang (Taiwan), Jae-Weon Kim (Korea), Seung-Cheol Kim (Korea), Rongyu Zang (China), David SP Tan (Singapore), Andri Andrijono (Indonesia), Yin Nin Chia (Singapore), Suk-Joon Chang (Korea), Duk-Soo Bae (Korea), Daisuke Aoki (Japan), Yasuhiro Udagawa (Japan), Soon-Beom Kang (Korea), Ikuo Konishi (Japan), Hee-Sug Ryu (Korea), Toshiharu Kamura (Japan), Joo-Hyun Nam (Korea), and Sarikapan Wilailak (Thailand).

ASGO, Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology.

In the morning of the last day, December 2, Journal of Gynecologic Oncology (JGO), the official journal of ASGO, held ‘JGO Session,’ which was co-chaired by Dr. Chulmin Lee (Korea) and Dr. Jianliu Wang (China) (Table 2). JGO tried its new program of ‘Editors comments on selected ASGO 2017 abstracts' for the first time at the JGO session in ASGO 2017 and was well-received by most of the participants. The JGO session was followed by the 3rd JGO Editorial Board meeting where a total of 23 editorial board members including 3 observers attended and discussed advertisement plan, peer review system reshuffle, reviewer recognition, and future plan for JGO session (Fig. 4).

Table 2

The program of JGO session

Title	Speaker (country)	Run-time (min)
How to make an attractive title for my paper?	Kyung-Jin Min (Korea)	10
Editor's comments on selected ASGO 2017 abstracts*	JGO Editors	24
Special topic: epidemiology of gynecologic cancers in China	Tianhui Chen (China)	15
Q&A		11

JGO session was co-chaired by Dr. Chulmin Lee (Korea) and Dr. Jianliu Wang (China).

ASGO, Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology; JGO, Journal of Gynecologic Oncology.

*Four JGO editors made comments on four pre-selected abstracts 1 editor for each abstract (abstract ID, abstract title, key author[s], editor in charge): 139, Microsatellite instability is potential biomarker for immune checkpoint inhibitors (anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibody) in endometrial cancer, Yamashita Hitomi (Japan), Sung-Jong Lee (Korea); 53, Influence of aging on the treatment and prognosis of patients with cervical cancer, Kumi Shimamoto and Toshiaki Saito (Japan), Dong Hoon Suh (Korea); 86, Trends in uterine cancer incidence in the US and Asian countries - a population analysis of 576,558 of women, Wen-Shiung Liou Cheng-I Liao (Taiwan), Jeong-Yeol Park (Korea); 167, Cervical Cancer Preoperative prediction model for parametrial invasion in women with early-stage cervical cancer, Charoenkwan Kittipat and Jatupol Srisomboon (Thailand), Seung-Hyuk Shim (Korea).

Fig. 4

The 3rd JGO editorial board meeting.

From left, Miseon Kim (Korea), Myong Cheol Lim (Korea), Tianhui Chen (China), Jeong-Yeol Park (Korea), Kyung-Jin Min (Korea), Dong Hoon Suh (Korea), Akiko Tozawa (Japan), Chulmin Lee (Korea), Yusuke Kobayashi (Japan), Yao-Ching Hung (Taiwan), Seung-Hyuk Shim (Korea), Ting-Chang Chang (Taiwan), Sung-Jong Lee (Korea), Japutol Srisomboon (Thailand), Wichai Termrungruanglert (Thailand), Ju-Won Roh (Korea), Chunling Chen (China), Maria Lee (Korea), Suwanit Therasakvichya (Thailand), Arb-aroon Lertkhachonsuk (Thailand), Xipeng Wang (China), and Charuwan Tantipalakorn (Thailand).

JGO, Journal of Gynecologic Oncology.

In parallel with JGO session and the 3rd JGO Editorial Board meeting, the Gynecologic Cancer InterGroup (GCIG) Symposium was held in Saturday morning, which was chaired by Dr. Jonathan Berek (USA). After brief overview by Dr. Andres Poveda (Spain, GCIG chair) and Katherine Bennett (Canada, GCIG operations & executive officer), several presentations of the following GCIG members ensued: Drs. Keiichi Fujiwara (Japan, GCIG Chair-elect), Mansoor Raza Mirza (Denmark, GCIG director [Nordic Society of Gynecologic Oncology]), and Jae-Weon Kim (Korea, GCIG director [Korean Gynecologic Oncology Group]).

The social program consisted of presidential dinner at the Akasaka Prince Classic House in Tokyo in the first day evening and banquet at the Royal Park Hotel on Friday, December 1. After opening addresses in the banquet place, the awards ceremony for the JGO Best Reviewer Award 2017 took place. Those in attendance were then treated to a live karate demonstration by Dr. Juri Iwata, KARATE 2020 Ambassador for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, as well as a shishimai (lion dance) and cups of sake from Miss Sake. The resplendence and conviviality were enjoyed by all (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5

Scenes of social program consisted of presidential dinner (December 1, 2017, Royal Park Hotel, Tokyo).

The 5th Workshop will be held at Ajou University Hospital in Suwon, Korea on August 24 and 25, 2018. The 6th Biennial Meeting will take place at Paradise City, Incheon, Korea from October 10 to 12, 2019 hosted by professor Seung-Cheol Kim.