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We invite you to the 鶹Լ’s 6th Annual Symposium on Upper Gastro-Intestinal Cancers held in Montreal on October 28, 2023.

Annual Symposium on Upper Gastro-Intestinal Cancers

We are pleased to invite you to the 鶹Լ’s 6th Annual Symposium on Upper Gastro-Intestinal Cancers held in Montreal on October 28, 2023. The symposium aims to gather healthcare professionals of different disciplines to share their insights and latest research in the clinical management of esophageal and gastric malignancies. This platform will provide a unique opportunity to interact with international leaders in the field of Upper Gastro-Intestinal Cancers and learn about novel approaches that can be implemented in daily practice.

The 6th Annual Symposium on Upper Gastro-Intestinal Cancers is hosted by:

From left to right: Dr. Lorenzo Ferri (Thoracic Surgeon- 鶹Լ), Dr. Serge Mayrand (Gastroenterologist - 鶹Լ), Dr. Joanne Alfieri (Radiation Oncologist - 鶹Լ) and Dr. Thierry Alcindor (Medical Oncologist - 鶹Լ)
From left to right: Dr. Lorenzo Ferri (Thoracic Surgeon- 鶹Լ),Dr. Serge Mayrand (Gastroenterologist - 鶹Լ),
Dr. Joanne Alfieri (Radiation Oncologist - 鶹Լ) and Dr. Thierry Alcindor (Medical Oncologist - 鶹Լ)

Explore the symposium program below.

PDF icon Symposium Program 2023

speaker information poster

Why attend:
- Learn from experts in the field and enhance your knowledge base
- Get informed on the future of patient care
- Network with international leaders


Guest Speakers

Dr. Mai-Kim Gervais

Dr. Mai-Kim GervaisDr. Mai-Kim Gervais is a surgical oncologist at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal and an associate professor in Surgery at the Université de Montréal. In 2016, she completed a clinical fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the University of Toronto. She also trained at the National Cancer Institute in Tokyo in gastric cancer. Her areas of expertise include gastric cancer, retroperitoneal sarcoma, melanoma, and breast cancer. Dr. Gervais is part of the executive committee of the Canadian Gastric Cancer Association.

Dr. Suzanne Gisbertz

Dr. Suzanne Gisbertz Dr. Suzanne Gisbertz finished medical school at the Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam in 2002. She did her surgical training at UMCU and St. Antonius Hospital, Utrecht until 2010 and her advanced gastro-intestinal surgical training at Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam until 2012. She got her PhD in 2009.

She is currently a consultant upper-GI surgeon and principal investigator at the Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam. She is a proctor for minimally invasive esophagectomies and gastrectomies in the Netherlands and abroad. Her research topics are lymph node metastases and extent of lymphadenectomy in esophagogastric cancer, minimally invasive upper GI surgery and postoperative outcome and quality of life following upper GI surgery.

She is board member of the NVGIC, ISDE, ESDE, ESA and program chair of the EAES. She is also organizer of the ESDE2025 and IGCC 2025 and NVGIC 2024. She is a member of several guideline committees, both nationally and internationally.

Dr. SamuelKlempner

Dr. Klempner is a Associate Professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and leads the gastric and esophageal program. His clinical and translational research is centered on cancer genomics, acquired resistance to targeted therapies and the intersection of genomics and immune mediated therapies to identify novel therapeutic approaches and biomarkers in gastroesophageal cancers.

He serves on the NRG non-colorectal committee, the NCI esophagogastric task force, and the NCCN guideline committees for gastric and esophageal cancers. His work is supported by Stand Up 2 Cancer, NCI/NIH, AACR, and he currently serves as the AGA Research Foundation’s Gastric Cancer Foundation Ben Feinstein Memorial Research Scholar Award in Gastric Cancer.

As a member of the gastrointestinal cancer group at MGH Dr. Klempner conducts clinical trials and translational research with new targeted agents and immune therapies and is active in gastroesophageal cancer advocacy and education.

Dr. Uma Sachdeva

Dr. Uma SachdevaDr. Uma Sachdeva is a thoracic surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. She received her MD and PhD in cell and molecular biology through the Medical Scientist Training Program from the University of Pennsylvania after completing her undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College. She is a graduate of the General Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery training programs at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

She specializes in thoracic oncology, focusing on esophageal and lung cancers using minimally invasive and robotic approaches. Her lab studies molecular pathways underlying the development of esophageal cancers and precursor lesions. She received the 2021 F. Griffith Pearson Fellowship and the 2nd David C.Sabiston Research Scholarship from the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the 2021 Research Scholarship from the Thoracic Surgery Foundation, and is a young investigator in the Early-stage Surgeon Scientist Program through the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Mark van Berge Henegouwen

Dr. Mark van Berge Henegouwen Dr. Mark van Berge Henegouwen, received his MD and PhD at the University of Amsterdam. He performed his fellowship in gastrointestinal, upper GIand minimally invasive surgery at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam where he started as senior consultant in 2006.

Mark van Berge Henegouwen’ s clinical practice is dedicated to patients with malignancies of the esophagus and stomach. The Amsterdam UMC is atertiary referral center for these patients with around 250esophago-gastricresections annually. Mark van Berge Henegouwen has introduced minimally invasive surgery for esophageal and gastric cancer at his center in 2009 and now around 90percentof patients is treated thoraco-laparoscopically or robotically.

Mark van Berge Henegouwen is a Principal Investigator in upper GI cancer Surgery and main research activities are focused on improvement of outcomes in upper GI cancer surgery, outcomes and centralization in the Dutch Upper GI Cancer Audit, improvement of (minimally invasive and robotic)techniques, neoadjuvant treatment regimens in esophageal and gastric cancer, imaging techniques and quality of life in upper GI cancer surgery. He is author of more than 10 book chapters and over 425 peer reviewed publications in these subjects.

Dr. Karin Haustermans

Dr. Karin HaustermansKarin Haustermans graduated in 1987 as Doctor in Medicine, Surgery and Obstetrics (MD) at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium). In 1993, she completed her training and qualification in Radiation Oncology. After a research fellowship at the Laboratory of Experimental Radiotherapy (Ku Leuven), she obtained her PhD in Medical Sciences for which she received in 1996 the ESTRO-VARIAN Clinical Research Award. Thereafter she spent four years as a staff member at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam.

Currently, Karin Haustermans is Medical Director of Protontherapy PARTICLE and Secretary of the Leuven Cancer Institute at the University Hospital Leuven (Belgium).

In 2010 she was awarded the ESTRO Breur medal in recognition of her major contribution to European Radiotherapy. From 2011 onwards she was appointed as a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine and in 2015 she became a fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences. Since 2016 she is clinical editor of Radiotherapy & Oncology.

Dr. Jérémie Jacques

Dr. Jérémie JacquesDr. Jérémie Jacques is a professor of Gastroenterology since 2001 and is an International expert of endoscopic submucosal dissection and third space endoscopy.

Dr. Jérémie is also the Director of the French training program of third space endoscopy and of the French training program of endoscopy for gastroenterology residents. He also has 196 referenced Pubmed citations particularly in the field of therapeutic endoscopy.

Dr. Riccardo Rosati

Dr. Riccardo Rosati Prof. Rosati has extensive experience in open and minimally invasive surgery of the digestive tract, especially in the field of foregut and large bowel diseases; multidisciplinary approach consisting in application of chemo and chemo radiotherapy protocols in neoadjuvant setting is strongly enforced.

He has given lectures and performed live surgical procedures at many international meetings worldwide. He leads one of the most recognized “High Volume Center” for esophageal and gastric surgery in Italy.

Dr. Rosati also has thorough experience in hepatobiliary, pancreatic, and endocrine surgery. Bariatric surgery and day surgery are routinely offered in the department he chairs. He is actively involved in clinical practice, research and development of new minimally invasive surgical procedures and instrumentation.

The Hospital division headed by him treats approximately 2, 000 surgical cases per year.

Dr. Rosati has over 450 experimental and clinical publications and organizes yearly specialist training courses in minimally invasive surgery.

Dr. Matthew Stachler

Dr. Matthew Stachler  Dr. Stachler is a gastrointestinal and molecular Pathologist who runs a research laboratory at the University of California San Francisco.

His laboratory focuses on understanding what factors influence pre-malignant lesions in the upper gastrointestinal tract to progress to invasive cancer with a special interest in Barrett’s esophagus.

Specifically, we utilize human tissue samples to identify key differences, both intrinsic to the epithelium and extrinsic cells/factors, in patients who progress to cancer compared to those with stable, benign disease. We then utilize both in vitro and in vivo model systems to functionally interrogate those factors.

Dr. Brandon Huffman

Dr. HuffmanDr. Brandon Huffman is a medical oncologist in the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Huffman studied at the University of Missouri. He trained in Internal Medicine at MayoClinic in Rochester, Minnesota where he also served as a chief medical resident. He completed his fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where he also served as a chief fellow.

Dr. Huffman is a clinical investigator and translational researcher at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute focusing on upper gastrointestinal malignancies. He is particularly interested in the role of circulating tumor DNA as a predictive biomarker in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers.

The symposium will be held in

Address: 1050 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2R6

Continental breakfast will be served between 7:00 am – 8:00 am

Lunch will be served during the event

Parking is available for a rate of $25 paid by guest


Philinos Restaurant

4806 Park Ave, Montreal, Quebec H2V 4E7

7:00 pm Dinner


Physician – Attending only the symposium: $50
Physician – Attending the symposium & dinner: $100

*Please note, space is limited and all participants must by October 21st.
Only committee members and presenters will be automatically registered.

View previous symposium and past events

Thank you to our sponsors.

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