Vivian E. Strong

 

As a board-certified surgeon with advanced training in minimally invasive techniques (laparoscopy and robotic surgery)， Dr. Vivian E. Strong， M.D， FACS， had many great things to say about the 2017 International Gastric Cancer Conference. When asked which topics she was most interested in， Dr. Strong said， “I always enjoy coming to the IGCC， and there are so many hot topics， it is hard to answer that without having a whole list of the whole conference. But I think specially the topics of minimally invasive surgery and how would applied to various types of stomach cancer are of particular interest. Also the difference between gastric cancer in the Eastern part of the world and Western part of the world. I think that would be the most interesting topics in this year’s conference. We can see that although there are many differences in gastric cancer it appears that there are many subtypes of gastric cancer and if we look into these subtypes of gastric cancer even in different countries there are more similarities than previously thought.”

 

As someone with a vast background in MIS and robotic surgery， she wrote a report for this year’s IGCC. “The main content looks at the evolving standards of care for gastric cancer in the United States as well as many other countries that have improve both selection of types of gastric cancer and also identification of various subtypes of gastric cancer that should be treated with more precise molecular therapies and antibody therapies. I think there has been a lot of progress made. I think we have a better chance to understand which patients should be selected for operation and not， for example. And we discussed how diagnostic laparoscopy plays a very important role in staging patients with locally advance gastric cancer. We also have done a lot at weather neoadjuvant treatment for patients with locally advance gastric cancer is better than adjuvant treatment. We still don’t know the answer to that and it probably depends on the type of cancer that you are treating. But those are some of the most interesting findings I would think，” she said， when asked about the main content of her report. 

 

Finally， Dr. Strong shared with us her views on the important changes in the standard treatment of gastric cancer among recent decades， as well as the directions for future research. “I would say the direction for the future research is multifaceted. On one side improving our selection for gastric cancer patients will be important. We don’t yet have the ideal biomarker that tells us which patients should get one treatment over another. I think as we develop those kinds of selection criteria we will be able to improve our treatment. I think minimally invasive approaches also are improving， and now we are planning our selection about which patients should have this approach. In the Plenary Session this morning there was a whole discussion about antibody-mediated treatments for gastric cancer， new treatments. So I think that is an area that we are just beginning to explore and already have some interesting preliminary data. But I think by our next IGCC meeting we will have even more information and equipment for our pathologist to take care of our gastric cancer patients better.” We look forward to having her present at future IGCC meetings， and to continue to see her work in gastric cancer develop.