The Virtual Tumour Board for Esophageal Neoplasm virtual presentation was held on March 26, 2021. This 90-Minutes presentation, moderated by Simon Law, University of Hong Kong and Richard van Hillegersberg, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands, is now available in four segments on our YouTube Chanel.

We are pleased to announce that we received close to 600 abstract submissions for the ISDE 2021 Virtual Congress! The program committee is looking forward to reviewing all proposals and we will send out result notifications in May.

Watch this space for the preliminary scientific program – it will be announced on the congress website very soon.

Next month will also see the opening of the congress registrations.

Among the most exotic locations for an ISDE World Congress was Kyoto, the site of the 5th World Congress (Figure 1). This meeting was hosted by Congress President Prof. Kin-ichi Nabeya , and the ISDE President was Prof. David Skinner in August 1992.  Attendance was 650 strong, representing 45 countries. Submitting abstracts numbered over 500, representing 32 countries. The attendees and accompanying persons enjoyed the beauty and culture of Kyoto immensely. Side trips included a visit to an old capitol of Japan, Nara, and many attendees tried out a traditional ryokan (bed and breakfast) to experience what life was like a century or more before. Read the full fifth and sixth congress spotlight.

Review a collection of the top ten articles from recent years and stay up-to-date on research that’s making the largest impact in the field, including the following:

Checkout the reading list online for the complete list.

Long-term survival after curative surgery for oesophageal cancer surgery remains poor, and the prognostic impact of anastomotic leak (AL) remains unknown. A meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of AL on long-term survival. Read the full Effect of anastomotic leaks on long-term survival article for free.

The main curative treatment modality for esophageal cancer is resection. Patients initially deemed suitable for resection may become unsuitable, most commonly due to signs of generalized disease or having become unfit for surgery. The aim was to assess risk factors for abandoning esophagectomy and its impact on survival. All patients diagnosed with an esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer in the Swedish National Register for Esophageal and Gastric Cancer from 2006–2016 were included and risk factors associated with becoming ineligible for resection were analyzed in multivariable logistic regression analysis. Read the full Abandoning resectional intent in patients article for free.

The ECCG developed a standardized platform for reporting operative complications, with consensus definitions. The Dutch Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Audit (DUCA) published a national comparison against these benchmarks. This study compares ECCG data from the Irish National Center (INC) with both published benchmark studies. All patients undergoing multimodal therapy or surgery with curative intent from 2014 to 2018 inclusive were studied, with data recorded prospectively and entered onto a secure online database (Esodata.org). Read the full Comparison of Esophagectomy outcomes between a National Center article.

Milan, Italy

The European Society for Diseases of the Esophagus (ESDE) and the International Gastric Cancer Association European Chapter (IGCA), will be holding their first joint Congress from November 18 -20, 2021 in Milan, Italy. A series of webinars will be held ahead of the congress between April to September and the first three topics and dates are as follows:

Find out more on the ESDE IGCA Joint congress website.

Visit the ISDE Literature Updates Online for more.