The 8th Biennial Meeting of the Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology, December 1st to 3rd, 2023

INTRODUCTION

As per the 2018 GLOBOCAN database, Asia accounted for 48.7% (637,761) of new gynecologic cancer cases and 50.1% (305,000) of gynecologic cancer deaths [1]. Recognizing the distinct differences in genetic background, cancer epidemiology, disease characteristics, and socio-cultural environment between Asian and non-Asian women, it is noteworthy that much of the experimental evidence guiding clinical gynecologic oncology practices has historically been drawn from studies in Western populations. Established in 2008, the Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology (ASGO) serves as a key organization in Asia, dedicated to advancing the study, prevention, and treatment of gynecological cancer through scientific exchange, regional/international collaboration, educational initiatives, and fostering camaraderie among its members [2]. Presently, ASGO boasts members from over 10 countries in Asia.

Building on the success of the previous meetings held in Tokyo (2009) [3], Seoul (2011) [4], Kyoto (2013) [5], Seoul (2015) [6], Tokyo (2017) [7], Incheon (2019) [8], and Bangkok (2021) [9], the eighth Biennial Meeting of ASGO took place at the state-of-the-art HNBK International Convention Center in Taipei, Taiwan, from December 01 to 03, 2023. The overarching theme for this event was “Reunion to Overcome Gynecologic Cancer in Asia.” Notably, due to the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in 2021, the meeting was transformed into a hybrid format. This gathering marked a significant milestone as the first in-person Pan-Asia meeting focused on gynecological cancer following the pandemic. Additionally, it is worth highlighting that this was the inaugural ASGO meeting held outside of Korea and Japan, underscoring the broadening geographical scope and global impact of the conference. Professor Peng-Hui Wang and Jae-Weon Jim chaired the organizing committee. ASGO 2023 witnessed the participation of 633 attendees from 17 countries, featuring 152 honored speakers and chairs from 12 countries. The event included 44 oral/surgical video presentations and 187 poster presentations, covering a diverse range of scientific topics, from fundamental principles of gynecological cancer care to advanced, high-technology practices rooted in cutting-edge research (Table 1). Photos from the meeting are accessible on the official meeting website (http://tinyurl.com/26xtts2f).

Table 1. Number of participants and presenters by country/region.

Countries/Regions	Participants	Speakers/presenters
		Late breaking abstracts	Young doctor session	Oral	Video	Poster	Total
Australia	2	-	-	1	-	1	2
Bangladesh	3	-	-	-	1	-	-
China	-	-	-	-	1	18	19
Hong Kong	2	-		-	-	3	3
India	19	-	4	-	3	6	13
Indonesia	34	-	2	1	-	5	8
Japan	109	1	2	3	-	18	24
Korea	172	1	6	18	5	80	110
Macau	1	-	-	-	-		6
Malaysia	8	-	3	-	-	1	4
Nepal	-	-	1	-	-	1	2
Philippines	19	-	6	-	-	-	6
Singapore	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Taiwan	230	-	3	6	4	46	59
Thailand	25	-	4	1	-	7	12
Turkey	1	-	-	-	-	-
United States	3	1	-	-	1	-	2
Uzbekistan	4	-	-	-	-	1	1
Vietnam	4	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	633	3	31	30	14	187	265

OPENING CEREMONY

Professor Jae Weon Kim, serving as the President of ASGO, delivered the inaugural address, setting the tone for the event. Subsequently, opening remarks and welcome speeches were offered by the Minister of Ministry of Health and Welfare of Taiwan, Dr. Jui-Yuan Hsueh. The ASGO Contribution Award was given to Professor Daisuke Aoki and Professor Yusuke Kobayashi. Distinguished individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the field of gynecologic oncology throughout their careers were honored with Outstanding Achievement Awards. The recipients of these accolades were Professor Sarikapan Wilailak and Professor Kung-Liahng Wang (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Opening ceremony. (A) Professor Jae Weon Kim, President of ASGO. (B) Professor Peng-Hui Wang, Chair of Local Organizing Committee. (C) Professor Jae Weon Kim with ASGO Contribution Award recipient Professor Daisuke Aoki. (D) Outstanding Achievement Award recipient Professor Sarikapan Wilailak. (E) Outstanding Achievement Award recipient Professor Kung-Liahng Wang. (F) Professor Jae Weon Kim with ASGO Contribution Award recipient Professor Yusuke Kobayashi.

ASGO, Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology.

SCIENTIFIC SESSIONS

1. Keynote speech

The keynote speech was started with Professor Ie-Ming Shih, highlighting the clinical implications of new paradigm in ovarian cancer genesis for gynecologic oncologists. Professor Charles Leath followed up with the evolving treatment paradigm of advanced endometrial cancer (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Scientific sessions. (A) Keynote speech with Professor Ie-Ming Shih, highlighting the clinical implications of new paradigm in ovarian cancer genesis for gynecologic oncologists and (B) Professor Charles Leath followed up with the evolving treatment paradigm of advanced endometrial cancer. Late-breaking abstracts featured three groundbreaking studies encompassing endometrial with (C) Professor Shannon Westin, (D) Cervical with Professor Kosei Hasegawa, and (E) TDx-D in gynecological cancers with Professor Jung-Yun Lee. (F) A group photo of the attendees of the 8th biennial Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology meeting.

2. Late-breaking abstracts

Late-breaking abstracts featured three groundbreaking studies encompassing endometrial, cervical, and ovarian cancers. These comprised two investigations into adjuvant drug conjugates and one exploring immunotherapy, PARP inhibitors, and chemotherapy combinations. Professor Jung-Yun Lee initiated the discussion with findings on the efficacy and safety of trastuzumab deruxtecan in patients with HER2-expressing solid tumors: results from the cervical, endometrial, and ovarian cancer cohorts of the DESTINY-PanTumor02 Study. The study highlighted enduring clinical benefits, significant survival outcomes, and a safety profile consistent with known parameters, including interstitial lung disease, in previously treated patients with HER2-expressing tumors who received trastuzumab deruxtecan. the most substantial benefits were observed in the IHC 3+ population. Professor Kosei Hasegawa then presented the innovaTV 301/ENGOT-cx12/GOG-3057: A global, randomized, open-label, phase III study of tisotumab vedotin vs investigator’s choice of chemotherapy in 2L or 3L recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer. The results from the innovaTV 301 study demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall response rate compared to chemotherapy, with a safety profile that was both manageable and tolerable in patients with 2L/3L recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer. Finally, Professor Shannon N Westin presented findings on durvalumab plus carboplatin/paclitaxel followed by maintenance durvalumab with or without olaparib as first-line treatment for advanced endometrial cancer: results from the phase III Duo-E/GOG-3041/ENGOT-EN10 trial. The study demonstrated that carboplatin/paclitaxel plus durvalumab followed by maintenance durvalumab with or without olaparib yielded a statistically significant and clinically meaningful PFS benefit in patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer (Fig. 2).

3. Symposia

A total of 36 distinguished speakers were invited to deliberate on subjects within their respective areas of expertise, encompassing 12 symposia during the conference. These symposia covered a range of pertinent topics, including rare gynecologic cancers, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, AI and database, surgical technique, imaging, basic science, cancer patient management, radiotherapy, genomic and biomarker or prognostic marker, and immunotherapy.

Additionally, the conference featured three special symposia that delved into specific topics of significant relevance. Professor Byoung-Gie Kim presented on the “An opportunity to transform outcomes for high unmet need ovarian cancer patients,” Professor Shannon N Westin discussed the “The paradigm shift of endometrial cancer treatment with new combination regimen,” and Professor Jeong-Yeol Park explored the “New Era of Newly Diangosed Ovarian Cancer Treatment: Connect PRIMA to PRIME.” The conference also facilitated engaging debates, where topics under discussion included minimally invasive surgery for uterine cancer and cervical cancer, primary debulking versus neoadjuvant chemotherapy with interval debulking in ovarian cancer surgery. In addition, the ASGO Special Task Force on personalized medicine and fertility preservation seized the opportunity to provide a comprehensive summary of their work during the conference.

4. Clinical trial groups in Asia, guideline, and education sessions

Six sessions were dedicated to the presentation of clinical trial groups from Asia that actively participated in ASGO 2023, namely EAGOT, APGOT, KGOG, GOTIC, JCOG, TGOG, and GCGS. This session was conducted under the guidance of Professor Kazunori Ochiai, Takayuk Enomoto, and Byoung-Gie Kim. The Guideline session, focusing on cervical cancer, was overseen by Arb-aroon Lertkhachonsu and Seung-Hyuk Shim, providing updates on the developmental progress of ASGO Guideline. In parallel, the Young Doctor session, under the chairmanship of Professor Kittipat Charoenkwan and Professor Chih-Ming Ho, offered a platform for emerging professionals to contribute their insights. Additionally, the ASGO education session, chaired by Professor Kittipat Charoenkwan and Professor Yoo-Young Lee, featured six sessions dedicated to educational topics.

5. Tumor board

The tumor board deliberations encompassed unusual cases, such as mature teratoma with gliomatosis peritonei and gestational trophoblastic diseases. Notably, there was a detailed exploration of the distinctive management approaches for ovarian low-grade serous carcinoma as opposed to high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Additionally, the hotly debated topic of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics 2023 endometrial cancer staging emerged as one of the focal points during the tumor board discussions.

ADMINISTRATIVE AND SOCIAL EVENTS

1. ASGO council meeting

The 20^th ASGO Council Meeting was held on Nov 30^th, 2023 at the Grand Hyatt Taipei. Professor Masaki Mandai, the incoming president, expressed gratitude to Professor Jae-Weon Kim for his leadership to ASGO. Professor Suk-Joon Chang was elected as the 9^th president of ASGO. The next ASGO meeting was announced to be on November 29-December 1, 2024 in Bali, Indonesia. It will also be transitioned to an annual meeting, The 2025 Annual Meeting will be on July 17–19^th in Tokyo, Japan.

2. Journal of Gynecologic Oncology (JGO) editorial board meeting

The Editorial Board Meeting of JGO was held on December 3^rd. Professor Don Hoon Suh reported the journal strategies and impact factors. In the year of 2022, the journal’s impact factor was 3.9. He discussed the preferred articles of JGO. Q&A session included: authorship and publication ethics, identifying predatory journals, beginning involved in journals as a reviewer and an editor, and editors tip for JGO submission. Professor Dong Hoon Suh further announced the initiative of Editor and Reviewer Academy in order to reinforce the editorial and reviewer pool. The 2023 JGO Best Reviewer Awards went to Drs. Ping Wu, Andrea Giannini, and Chinmoy K Bose. The 2023 JGO Honar Awards went to Professor Hideki Tokunaga, Yoo-Young Lee, and David SP Tan.

3. Social events

The Gala Dinner was held at the Banquet Hall of the HNBK International Convention Center on December 2^nd 2023. This was a lively social event, especially that it was the first Pan-Asia Gynecologic Oncology social event after the pandemic (Fig. 3). The 15^th Anniversary of ASGO: A booth for the 15^th anniversary of ASGO was held at the 3^rd floor. A website was also launched for the celebration of the success of the society: www.15thasgo.com.

Fig. 3. Scenes from the ASGO 2023. Lively activities in the social events (A, C, F, H, I). ASGO 15 anniversary (B, E) and ASGO education Learning hub booth (F). (D) Editor-In-Chief Dong Hoon Suh giving the Journal of Gynecologic Oncology awards.

ASGO, Asian Society of Gynecologic Oncology.

ASGO Hands-On Laparoscopic Workshop: The workshop was held on November 30^th at Linlou Chang Gun Laboratory Animal Center. The aim of the workshop was for trainees to gain basic techniques, skills and knowledge in operating laparoscopic surgery. Residents, fellows or attendings who wished to improve the skills of laparoscopic surgery attended. This was moderated by Professor Yoo-Young Lee and Professor Hun-Hsueh Chou.