Hepatobiliary Cancers: Pathobiology and Translational Advances
Progress Report-Evaluations-Future Plans
The Hepatobiliary Cancers: Pathobiology and Translational Advances conference, which was held at the Virginia Crossings Hotel and Conference Center in Glen Allen, VA on December 7-10, 2017, was co-sponsored in part by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and The Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, as well as made possible in part by 1R13CA216895-01A1 from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as by partial funding from Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and Department of Pathology, registration fees, and donations administered by the MCV Foundation. The $2,250 awarded by 1R13CA216895-1A-Hepatobiliary Cancers: Pathobiology and Translational Advances was used exclusively to partially fund monetary abstract awards for 4 Early Career Investigators chosen by an independent abstract review committee (see below) based on objective criteria (i.e., novelty, innovation, scientific impact, significance), whose abstracts were ranked in the outstanding range of total abstract submissions selected for presentation at the conference. Additional non-federal funds, as well as a small portion of the remaining NIH funds were also used to partially cover the lodging costs of 5 additional Early Career Investigators whose abstracts ranked in the excellent to very good range.
There were 101 registrants to the conference, with 91 in attendance. Full details of the conference, including objectives, the scientific program, list of invited speakers, abstract-driven early career investigator poster session, conference accommodations, and photos can be found at the conference website www.livercancerconference.vcu.edu.
Figure 1 shows the geographical distribution of the total number of registrants for the conference. These include registrants from 16 US states (New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, California) and the District of Columbia, as well as two foreign countries (P.R. China, and Brazil).
The percentages of attendees representative of different ethnic backgrounds are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 3 breaks down the percentages of male and female registrants categorized as total attendees, invited speakers, and session chairs.
A total of 32 completed evaluation forms together with 18 separate e-mail responses commenting on the conference were received from the attendees. Among the 32 evaluation forms, 29 rated the overall conference organization and scientific content as being outstanding (90.6%), 2 as being very good (6.3%), and 1 as good (3.1%). The mean ± S.D. evaluation scores calculated for each of the specific items assessed on the evaluation form, as determined from the 32 returned forms, are compiled and shown in the Summary Evaluation Form. Evaluations were based on a scale ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 as poor and 5 as outstanding.
Written comments in the form of e-mail responses or handwritten comments on individual evaluation forms from the attendees are quoted below:
“Thank you very much for organizing this terrific symposium and for having allowed me to partake. I imagine how much thinking and reading you put into this outstanding program. It was nice seeing you and your wife again and to see that you will not retire. Science is too much fun!” Mario Strazzabosco, Yale
“Please allow me to thank you again for organizing an amazing meeting. I learned so much and met so many investigators in the field. I very much hope we can continue this type of meeting in the future”. Tim Greten, NCI
“Thanks, the meeting is very successful and helpful, and I hope to have a chance to join the meeting in the near future” Junyan Tao (Young Investigator), Univ. Pittsburgh
“Thank you for your perfect organization of this very interesting meeting. Everyone enjoyed it and hope to see you again somewhere else soon”. Jian Wu, Fudan Univ., China
“Thanks for organizing amazing conference. As a junior faculty from Mount Sinai this was an amazing opportunity to meet various experts in the field and learn current trends in Hepatobiliary Cancers”. Sai Krishna Davakar, Mount Sinai
“Thank you for all the amazing work that you put into creating such a successful meeting. It was a wonderful opportunity to get an overview of so many different aspects of hepatobiliary cancers that I did not miss a single session. Then, the discussions were continued over every break and meal. Each of us as individuals, and the field, owe you a great debt of thanks.” Sanford Simon, The Rockefeller Univ.
“Thank you for all of the effort that you put in for the organization and direction of the meeting. I had a great time and it was good to meet a number of new people and catch up with some old friends. Anonymous
“Happy to participate in the future”. John Groopman, Johns Hopkins Univ.
“I want to thank you for such a wonderful meeting. We learned an incredible amount about hepatobiliary cancers. It was also great to feel so welcomed as a new investigator. Already looking forward to the next meeting” Christopher Coss, The Ohio State Univ.
“Thank you-a wonderful meeting-you did an outstanding job! Lopa Mishra, George Washington Univ.
“I enjoyed the meeting very much. Lots of information, smart people, collegial discussions, plans to collaborate”. Florin Selaru, Johns Hopkins Univ.
“I wanted to take this opportunity for organizing such a wonderful meeting and for inviting me to be part of it. It was really an intellectual feast and I learned a lot….I want to emphasize that the meeting was spectacular in so many ways and I am sure everyone who attended felt the same way”. Satdarshan Pal (Paul) Monga, Univ. Pittsburgh
“Thank you again for putting together this nice symposium” Andrew Zhu, Mass General and Harvard Univ.
“Just wanted to thank you again for letting the foundation be part of the conference. It was so well done and I was honored to be able to finally meet you in person and so many scientists who are making such a big difference for these patients…..you put such a herculean effort into this conference and it showed” Stacie Lindsey, President and Founder of The Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation
“Thank u for organizing this fantastic meeting” Gianfranco Alpini, Texas A&M and Scott and White
“Thank you for a stimulating conference. I had a great time learning and networking with like-minded scientist within the field. I hope this conference continues and if it does, I plan to be part of it”. Adeola Michael (Young Investigator), Univ. Pittsburgh
“I have this urge to write this e-mail because I didn’t got (sic) enough confidence to talk to you during the conference. I hope you forgive me for not thanking you in person. The (abstract) award is a great encouragement when I was in a self-doubting situation…..I wasn’t even sure to continue in academics after this Ph.D program. It really means a lot…..I learned so much from the program and got inspired and encouraged. If I’m still in the US in two years, I’ll definitely come to your conference again….” Jinxiao Wang (Young Investigator), USCF
“I have learned a lot from this meeting on topics I thought I was an expert. Very well done. Hope it repeats”. Anonymous
“Tour-de-force. Congrats on recruiting a great faculty who gave timely, provocative talks”. Anna Mae Diehl, Duke Univ.
“An Excellent Conference”. Anonymous
“This is a great meeting. Thank you very much for organizing it!” Qiong Fu (Young Investigator), NCI
“An outstanding conference that met unmet need. Strong investigators, scientists, physicians, were invited and discussions terrific.” Anonymous
“Hope to attend this meeting again soon” Sobia Zaidi (Young Investigator), George Washington Univ.
“Wonderful meeting. Thank you for organizing.” Anonymous
“Excellent conference. Great interactions. Wonderful sessions. May be a good idea to open to hepatopathologists too. Thank you for the great organization.” Anonymous
“The meeting was truly excellent. The science was spectacular, the facilities were great, and the number of attendees facilitated effective networking.” Anonymous
“This was an excellent meeting with plenty of opportunities for learning and collaborate….I believe there is a big opportunity here and I really hope this initiative grows from here into a new society or focused group that attracts equally clinical, translational, and basic scientists.” Sergio Gradilone, The Hormel Inst., Univ. Minnesota
“This was an excellent meeting and provided a wonderful opportunity to hear about advances in the field and to meet and discuss research and potential collaboration among researchers in the liver cancer field. I hope the meeting continues in the coming years.” Anonymous
“Well organized conference with cutting-edge research topics and outstanding speakers. Excellent opportunities for interactions and scientific exchanges. All of the sessions are very well organized and the topics are relevant to important aspects of research.” Tong Wu, Tulane University
“Hope to attend this meeting again soon.” Sobia Zaidi, George Washington Univ.
A total of 31 abstracts were accepted for presentation in the Early Career Investigator Poster Session, of which 30 were actually displayed at the conference. Each of these were also published on Scholars Compass. Four monetary awards were handed out to young investigators based on rankings of their abstracts by an independent abstract review committee. The Abstract Review Committee was composed of Laura Beretta, Ph.D. (The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center), Florin M. Selaru, M.D., M.B.A. (Johns Hopkins School of Medicine), Snorri S. Thorgeirrsson, M.D., Ph.D. (National Cancer Institute, NIH), and Tong Wu, M.D., Ph.D. (Tulane University School of Medicine). Also, 3 days of hotel room costs (not including incidentals) were covered for an additional 5 young investigators who submitted an abstract. A portion of the monies used to support these costs came from our NIH R13 grant 1R13CA216895-01A1, and the remainder from non-federal funds provided by Dr. Sirica.
An invited review article titled “Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma: Continuing Challenges and Translational Advances”, equally co-authored by Dr. Sirica and some of the other speakers at the conference (Gregory J. Gores, John D. Groopman, Florin M. Selaru, Mario Strazzabosco, Xin Wei Wang, and Andrew X. Zhu) was published in the high impact liver journal HEPATOLOGY. 2018; Sep 25. doi: 10.1002/hep.30289. [Epub ahead of print]
Based on the overwhelming unanimous response from all of the attendees at the conference, by a show of hands, and also by written responses, to want to see this conference held again in 2 years, efforts are now underway to repeat the conference in 2020/21.
Alphonse E. Sirica, Ph.D., M.S., AGAF, FAASLD
Professor of Pathology and Internal Medicine
Division of Cellular and Molecular Pathogenesis
Department of Pathology
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0297
Telephone No.: (804) 828-9549
Fax No.: (804) 828-4077
E-mail: alphonse.sirica@vcuhealth.org