会長挨拶

The 16th IGICS (International Gastrointestinal Consensus Symposium will be held during GI Week (Tokyo) on 4th (Saturday) February, 2023. It is a great honor for me and I would like to express my deep gratitude to the board members of the academic society, including Prof Kazuhide Higuchi, MD, JGA President, for giving me an opportunity of the chairperson of 16th IGICS.

The theme of this time is focused on early-stage colorectal carcinoma The specific title is “Challenges and perspective of international standardization on diagnosis and treatment of early-stage colorectal carcinoma”. Recent advances in endoscopic diagnosis and treatment for early-stage colorectal carcinoma have been remarkable, and I also hope to discuss other related diagnostic modalities and pathological diagnosis as well. We are planning the following four session configurations.

1) Non-invasive diagnosis other than endoscopy
2) Magnification and image enhanced endoscopy (IEE) including AI
3) Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) – proper use among various therapeutic methods such as polypectomy (cold and hot) and endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) with en bloc or piecemeal manner
4) Problems in pathologic diagnosis (intramucosal carcinoma vs dysplasia, management of T1(SM) carcinoma after endoscopic resection)

Due to the spread of COVID19 infection, the social activities of Japan are still severely restricted, however, I hope that the COVID19 infection has settled down by the time of this conference in 2023. We hope that you will be willing to apply for the abstract and that many doctors will be able to participate in person. I would like to humbly thank you.