Highlights from the 27th ASM
Another successful AGITG ASM was recently conducted, this year at the Adelaide Convention Centre. The Meeting took place on 24 – 27 November 2025, convened by medical oncologist and Adelaide local Associate Professor Sina Vatandoust.
The meeting theme – Transforming Trials through Collaboration – built upon our 2024 ‘Thinking Outside the Box’ focus by highlighting the significance of collaborating for a greater global impact.
The program fostered greater collaboration across our already diverse membership, with specific sessions enabling members to share their knowledge on areas of interest. The Meeting also focused on partnerships across all areas of our research, including our growing engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to help improve clinical trial awareness and reduce barriers to join clinical research studies.
Manju Chandrasegaram, General and HPB Surgeon
“This conference is the one conference where we get all the cancer specialists – the allied health, the clinical trials nurses, radiation oncologists, interventional radiologist, medical oncologists, the surgeons – all in a room to discuss important things for our patients. There are not many meetings that allow all of these different people that are in this big clinical cloud around the patient to support that patient and come together.”
Some stats from this year’s ASM:
- 420 delegates
- 76 abstracts published in the APJCO Abstract Book
- 4 best of oral abstracts presentations + many rapid-fire discussions in poster walkaround sessions
- 3 new ideas presented in the New Concept Symposium
- 19 sponsors – thank you for your support!
The Monday workshops ranked highly among people’s favourite sessions. Also featured in the favourites were:
- Anal Cancer Masterclass
- Breakfast Symposiums
- Early onset session
- Integrated Oncology Workshop including CHALLENGE session
- Keynotes from international faculty
- MDT discussions
Monday 24 November, 2025
The first day of the ASM was a workshop day where delegates could choose from three insightful workshops: the Surgical Workshop, the Study Coordinator & Cancer Nurses Workshop, and the Integrated Oncology Workshop.
The Surgical Workshop covered upper and lower GI, colorectal liver metastases, and liver transplant colorectal disease, and featured surgical research abstract presentations.
The Integrated Oncology Workshop was designed for all disciplines and included an anal cancer masterclass, the CHALLENGE session on translating trials into practice, an upper GI multidisciplinary session on early-stage gastric oesophageal cancer, and a combined liver transplant colorectal disease session.
The Study Coordinator & Cancer Nurses Workshop, themed ‘Connected care: Elevating trials through practical collaboration’, was designed to accelerate professional growth through four focused sessions covering governance frameworks in practice, making quality of life data meaningful, integrated care in survivorship, and multidisciplinary collaboration in practice.
“The very public inclusion of collaboration with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples gave great insight. Also loved the speakers from a ‘lived’ personal experience – the sharing of their knowledge of how to improve was great to take home message.” – delegate feedback
Tuesday 25 November, 2025
The second day began with a Welcome to Country by Aunty Elaine Magias, followed by a session on collaborations with local communities chaired by Lorraine Chantrill and led by Madison Shakespeare.
In the opening plenary, Shailesh Shrikhande and Takayuki Yoshino discussed international partnerships aimed at addressing local health inequities, increasing clinical trial engagement, and translating shared insights into impactful global collaborations.
Session 2 explored improving long-term outcomes for patients through visions for survivorship research, followed by Special Interest Sessions.
The afternoon featured a session on the rise in early onset cancers, before closing with an upper GI multidisciplinary discussion featuring Connie Yip.
Louise Christophersen, our Clinical Development Lead, summarised Tuesday’s impactful Breakfast Session:
“The Welcome Breakfast session themed “Collaborations with Local Communities” was a thought-provoking and solutions-focussed session, thanks largely to the wisdom that was shared by our speakers and panel: Dr Madison Shakespeare, Dr Nina Scott, Dr Matilda Harry and Aunty Sue Coleman-Haseldine.
My key takeaways from the session:
– Building trustworthy and genuine collaborative relationships with First Nations communities is integral in advancing health equity – we must listen deeply and learn together (Madison Shakespeare).
– We need to understand what wellness looks – it’s not just behavioural or biomedical. Holistic wellness is diverse and different for everyone (Madison Shakespeare).
– We need to begin aligning oncology with ontology (Madison Shakespeare)
– It is our duty of care to consider cultural safety as clinical safety (Dr Matilda Harry)
– Thank you to our panel for sharing your wisdom this morning, and to Prof Lorraine Chantrill for Chairing this morning’s session!”
Another delegate commented: “It was great to get together in person and socialise/plan with colleagues. ‘The Rise in Early Onset Cancers | Knowledge Gaps and Research Opportunities’ was a brilliant session, and the breakout sessions were excellent for appreciating practice approaches and challenges.”
Wednesday 26 November, 2025
Day three featured a translational research keynote breakfast session on innovations in early detection with Rebecca Fitzgerald, followed by the translational keynote on harnessing data for clinical trials with Patrick Tan and Takayuki Yoshino.
Session 2 brought a surgical keynote with Shailesh Shrikhande, followed by Special Interest Sessions.
The afternoon featured the New Concepts Symposium, before closing with a lower GI multidisciplinary discussion featuring Connie Yip and Takayuki Yoshino.
“My highlights were the calibre of speakers, opportunity to interact with clinicians across disciplines in the treatment of GI Cancers, and the content related to the treatment of Upper GI cancers with immunotherapy.” – delegate feedback
“Top 3 highlights: Cancer biomarker genomic research and AI analysis for clinical applicability, topics addressing patient choice and involvement in treatment decision making, new treatment updates and precision medicine.” – delegate feedback
Thursday 27 November, 2025
The final day of the ASM, featured concurrent keynote breakfast sessions: a combined Medical Oncology & Translational Research Session with Matt Loft, Rebecca Fitzgerald and Stephen Blake; a Radiation Oncology & Radiology Session with Connie Yip, David Pryor and Ken Chan; and a Surgical Session with Chris Gillespie, Michael Solomon and Shailesh Shrikhande.
The morning program closed with a medical oncology keynote session with Takayuki Yoshino, the best of oral abstracts presentations, and a radiation oncology keynote session with Connie Yip.
The closing plenary began with a celebration of ground-breaking research, followed by an overview of the international trial landscape, emphasising key gaps and opportunities for development. A multidisciplinary panel then explored the future of our global collaborations, before the Meeting concluded with reflections from the Chair, Professor Lorraine Chantrill.
Sharon Pattison, Medical Oncologist
“I have found this conference to be fantastic, as I always do. It’s a really great space to connect with other medical oncologists, scientists, radiation oncologists, it’s multidisciplinary. It’s a great way to catch up on where things are at internationally and learn some new things as well.”
Nick Clemons, Translational Researcher
“This is my 8th time at the conference, and I always really enjoy this opportunity to catch up with leaders in the field and people that I collaborate with and hear all sorts of new and interesting research from all around the world and also locally.”
Christina Teng, Medical Oncologist
“What a great four days in Adelaide! Some really amazing speakers, and so many different perspectives on how we can collaborate better. It’s been really enlightening and I feel a renewed sense of purpose going back to the clinic.”
At this year’s meeting, gamification was introduced into the meeting app to drive member and sponsor engagement. Our top prize winner – Dr Simon Wilkins, Senior Research Fellow at Cabrini Health – shares his experience:
“Introducing gamification and awarding points for engagement was an inspired decision and led me to get so much more out of the ASM. It’s already a fantastic meeting that covers everything from basic research and surgery to oncology and clinical trials, as well as the latest developments in the field.
My background is in clinical and translational research, and I have been a member since 2019. The rules of the meeting app engagement award were straightforward: you would earn points by asking questions during sessions, uploading conference photos and videos, and interacting with sponsors. At the end of the conference, the person with the most points wins. Being the competitive type, I thought this was a fascinating idea and immediately jumped on board, starting to earn points. My friend and colleague also started collecting points, and with others, we started a very good-natured, fun competition.
By lunchtime on the last day of the ASM (Thursday), I was lucky enough to have just crept into the lead and won the award. This was a thrill and yet another bonus from attending the ASM.
At the end of the competition, the fascinating thing for me was the diverse range of backgrounds of the competition participants, the top ten included: a researcher, a surgeon, a consumer panel member, a clinical nurse specialist, a nurse manager, a study coordinator, a radiation oncologist, a laboratory head, a specialist nurse, and a clinical researcher.
People say you get more out of something the more effort you put in. This is very true with ASM engagement. I spoke with all the sponsors and got to know their products, and had great conversations about my work and their drugs. I haven’t always talked to all the sponsors at conferences, but I thoroughly recommend doing it to everyone; such a great group of people.
I got recognised by my other competitors and had conversations that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I also asked way more questions at the ASM than I usually would.
For everyone attending future ASMs, if you see something that says “Engage and Win!” do jump in. You really won’t regret it, and it will really enhance your time at the ASM.”
Thank you to everyone involved in preparing this year’s Meeting, and thank you to our delegates, we trust you found the sessions enriching.
We’re deeply thankful to all our ASM sponsors. Your generous support made it possible to unite specialists from Australia, Aotearoa, and around the world to share ground-breaking research in GI cancer treatment and care.
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