News@SIOP – September 2018 – SC Chair

The 50^th SIOP Congress will take place in Kyoto, Japan November 16-19, 2018. This is sure to be one of the most important and successful SIOP Congresses ever conducted. We received a record number of abstract submissions for the Congress, which has allowed us to develop an outstanding scientific program. This Congress will include the 3^rd SIOP-St. Baldrick’s Foundation Seminar, focusing this year on Cancer Predisposition. Dr. Garrett Brodeur is the convener of this symposium and other speakers will be Drs. David Malkin, Steven Joffe, and Raoul Hennekam. A major highlight of the Congress will be a Keynote Address on Autophagy by Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi from Tokyo, who was the 2016 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Dr. Giogio Perilongo, immediate past President of SIOP, will give a Keynote on The History of SIOP, which is sure to be exciting and informative.

Three late-breaking abstracts will be selected for presentation during a special one-hour session. The deadline for late breaking abstract submission has ended September 4^th.

The Scientific Committee has revised the Congress schedule to promote more interaction during poster and poster discussion sessions. Day #3 (Monday November 19) will now be a full day, ending about 5 PM. There will be two 90-minute poster sessions on the evenings of Saturday November 17 and Sunday November 19, with half of the posters presented each day. Beer, soft drinks, and light snacks will be provided to encourage attendance and conversations. These sessions will use poster boards, with presenters also encouraged to submit their posters electronically so that they will be available on the SIOP Congress app and also able to be posted on the SIOP website after the meeting. The format of poster discussion sessions will also be new this year. There will be 6 parallel poster discussion sessions held in meeting rooms on the afternoon of Monday November 19. A discussant will discuss 6-8 individual posters using slides, with time for feedback between the discussant, the abstract authors, and the audience. We hope that all of these changes will make the SIOP 2018 Congress the best one yet!