ESMO Gastrointestinal Oncology – Expedition into a new era of research and better care

Dear readers, dear colleagues,

We are pleased to present the first issue of ESMO Gastrointestinal Oncology. The European Society for Medical Oncology has made the important decision to launch a journal focused on gastrointestinal oncology. We feel privileged to serve as the Editors-in-Chief of this new journal. We are convinced that ESMO Gastrointestinal Oncology will have a prominent place in the landscape of scientific literature of GI oncology. We believe in this success first and foremost because research and knowledge gains in the field of tumours of the digestive tract are dynamic and progressing at a rapid pace. We have the opportunity to accompany this development with original papers, review articles, commentaries, pro and con discussions as well as trials and research-in-progress articles, always highlighting exciting developments. Secondly, we have approached a team of outstanding associate editors and editorial board members to assist us in this task. Subject matter and geographic diversity have guided us in approaching the experts and, of course, our high regard for the expertise of our colleagues. Third, the ESMO community will carry this journal to success. With more than 30,000 members and activity spanning the globe, we are not worried about ESMO Gastrointestinal Oncology's permanent place in the global oncology community.

The journal aims to publish experimental, translational, diagnostic and therapeutic research. Specific areas of interest include but are not limited to gastrointestinal cancer biology and epidemiology, prevention and early detection, advances in molecular, genetic and imaging diagnostics, therapeutic studies from pre-clinical to clinical (phase I-IV) with a focus on targeted and immunotherapy, translational research, patient-oriented studies, psychosocial aspects of disease, treatment of long-term morbidity and survivorship, palliative and supportive care, novel methods and clinical protocols.

We editors believe that the rapid translation of progress in research into clinical application is of utmost importance in gastrointestinal oncology today, so we want to give translational research approaches a particularly prominent place in our journal. The diversity of essential topics in gastrointestinal oncology is also reflected in the contributions we publish in the inaugural issue of the journal.

The first issue highlights the unanswered questions and hypotheses on the increasing incidence of GI tumours in younger populations. These are summarised by Elisa Fontana from London [1]. The important advances in immunotherapy of primary liver cancers are illustrated in two articles: an evaluation of promising neoadjuvant therapy concepts for hepatocellular carcinomas presented by Stephen Chan and co-authors from Hong Kong [2], and a review of the impact of tumour biology for immuno-oncological therapy approaches in hepatocellular carcinoma is illustrated by Thomas Berg's group of authors from Leipzig [3]. Timothy Price from the Australasian Gastrointestinal Trials Group presents a new clinical research approach to influence the tumour microenvironment in the therapy of pancreatic carcinoma [4]. The increasingly differentiated treatment options for localised rectal cancer are evaluated in a contribution by Karyn Goodman from New York [5], and the Japanese group led by Takayuki Yoshino presents an innovative study on a multimodality treatment concept for rectal cancer [6].

We thank all the authors who enthusiastically supported the launch of the journal. We thank ESMO for the opportunity to lead this exciting expedition into the field of gastrointestinal oncology. Particularly, we thank the ESMO executive editor Lewis Rowett and the outstanding Elsevier managing editor team around Catherine O’Hara for their professional guidance and support along the way. We look forward to receiving further submissions from active authors and hope that you, the ESMO Gastrointestinal Community, will find interest and inspiration in the new journal and that the ESMO GI oncology community will continue to grow with the journal.

Yours