Interview with Des Winter about his keynote lecture in Vienna in September as part of ESCP’s 14th Scientific & Annual Meeting.
Des Winter is the chair of ESCP Programme Committee and has recently been appointed as Editor in Chief of BJS. This is alongside his role as surgeon at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, where he works at the largest colorectal unit in Ireland.
The keynote lecture on Wednesday 25 September, ‘Redefining boundaries with the PelvEx and REACCT global collaboratives’ will be chaired by Giuseppe Sica and Amy Lightner. Des will update attendees on Pan-European and global collaborative projects, introduce and develop ideas, and attract new participants in the networks.
The lecture will focus on two main topics. Firstly, the PelvEx Collaborative will be explored, focusing on advanced pelvic malignancy which requires exenteration and TME surgery. Secondly, the REACCT Collaborative and research into early age colorectal cancer trends will be covered.
He explains why a collaborative approach is so important:
“There is a very worrying rise in the incidence of colorectal cancer in the under 50 age group in many countries. In order to understand the reasons behind this, as well as how we can possibly reverse this phenomenon, we must engage in global co-operation. This is why creating a network for idea-sharing is key to fostering necessary relationships.”
Des elaborated on the relevance of PelvEx and REACCT:
"Both subjects are at the frontier of surgical science for different reasons. One represents technical challenges and raises advanced oncology questions. The other is an epidemiological question and raises challenges to grasp pathogenesis and focussed screening."
On who the session would appeal to, Des added:
"This session will be of interest to a broad range of ESCP attendees from the interested and enthusiastic trainee eager to get involved, to seasoned surgeons looking to understand what they are seeing in their practice."
Find out more about the ‘ESCP Vienna 2019’ 25-27 September here.
The keynote lecture: ‘Redefining boundaries with the PelvEx and REACCT global collaboratives’ starts at 16:25 on Wednesday 25 September at ESCP Vienna 2019. Register here.