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Argentina | Japan | Korea | Italy

Argentina

Dear Colleagues:

It is a great pleasure to invite you to join us in the “1st Symposium of the Section of Neuro-Oncology”, organized by the Section of Neuro-oncology of the Argentine Society of Cancerology (Argentine Medical Association AMA).

The Symposium will be held in Buenos Aires on August 11th-12th, 2006 within the Program of XII Argentine Congress of Cancerology. The main topics are:

• State of the art in the management of oligodendrogliomas

• Vertebroplasty for metastatic disease of the spine

Secretaría e Informes: Dr. Ramón Carrillo 294 (1275) Capital – Tel/Fax: 4305-3310 – E-mail: info@p-latinoamericanas.com.ar - Buenos Aires, 11 y 12 de agosto de 2006. Alvear Palace Hotel – Av. Alvear 1891, Buenos Aires

Sincerely yours,

Alejandra T Rabadán, MD 
President of the Section of Neuro-Oncology 
Argentine Society of Cancerology. AMA 
Argentina

Japan

Report from JAPAN 2006
Fumio Yamaguchi, MD, PhD

As current movements in Japan, Temodal®Capsule (temozolomide) was approved to be released on September 15th, 2006 in Japan. Many patients had been waiting for this approval, and the improvement of survival rate is expected.  The clinical trial of IL13-PE38QQR for recurrent malignant glioma has been started.  The first patient of GBM was treated safely and has been followed for its effectiveness. 

The 7th annual meeting of The Japan society of molecular neurosurgery was held in September 2006 in Tokyo, Japan. As gene therapies for brain tumor, “herpes simplex virus type I expressing IL-12”, “WT1 vaccinotherapy” and “mutant HSV having Musashi-promotor” are reported. Keywords for current Japanese molecular research are neurofibromin, peptidyl-polyl-cis/trans-isomerase Pin1, MGMT, sodium mercaptoundecahydrododecabonate (BSH), PTEN/Akt pathway, SNAI1 for E-Cadherin and proteomic profile.

The 65th Annual Meeting of the Japan Neurosurgical Society was held in October, 2005 in Kyoto.  The main theme of this meeting was “A Reappraisal of Japan.”  Many neurosurgeons from all over the world including USA are invited as lecturers.  As symposium topics, “the current situations and the prospects of an operation support system”, “Skull base surgery and QOL”, “QOL for Pituitary surgery and craniopharymgioma surgery”, “the current situations and the prospects of malignant glioma”, “Stereotactic radiosurgery and long-term outcome” and “Surgery for the brainstem lesions and QOL” are fully discussed. 

We expect to have several meetings regarding brain tumors. Upcoming meetings in Japan include:

• The 11th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Congress for Brain Tumor Surgery
  Dec. 8-9, 2006, Osaka, Japan
  
  
• The 17th annual meeting of the Japan society for hypothalamic and pituitary tumors
  Feb 23-24, 2007, Yamagata, Japan
  
  
• The 3rd annual meeting of Japan photodynamic neurosurgical society
  Feb 24, 2007, Yamagata, Japan
  
  
• 16th annual meeting of Conference on Neurosurgical techniques and tools
  Apr 12-13, 2007, Tokyo, Japan 

• 65th annual meeting of the Japan neurosurgical society
  Oct 18-20, 2006, Kyoto, Japan
  
  
• The 11th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Congress for Brain Tumor Surgery
  Dec. 8-9, 2006, Osaka, Japan

Korea

Update from Korea, by Spring, 2006
Hee-Won Jung, M.D., Ph.D.

The 15th Annual Meeting of Korean Brain Tumor Society was held in July 2, 2005 in Suwon, Korea. Prospective multi-center clinical trial about combined chemotherapy for the malignant brain tumors has been taking the greatest interest these days in Korean Brain Tumor Society. As National Health Insurance has started to reimburse the temozolomide in glioblastoma patients, many efforts to develop treatment protocols for malignant brain tumors with novel anti-cancer drugs are in process. The Seoul Clinical Neuro-Oncology Group have launched the phase III trial of prospective multi-center clinical trial of protocol for newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients using combined therapy of radiation therapy, ACCNU-CDDP, and temozolomide. The Korean Society for Pediatric Neuro-oncology started to recruit the patients with medulloblastomas, germ cell tumors and gliomas for the prospective multi-center clinical trial about the multimodality treatment protocols. And studies of several loco-lesional therapies by using convection delivery system are now planned to be practiced for the patients with malignant gliomas.

In basic research of brain tumor, the concept of tumor stem cell and strategies for the targeting and bombarding the tumor cells by using the specific properties of stem cells in tracking the tumor cells with suicidal gene or complements has been another hot issue to discuss. And also, several combination of immune modulating molecules and anti-angiogenetic agent combined therapy has caught another interest. Immuno-therapy using dendrite cells has been under investigation since several years before and on clinical trial in several institutes.

In coming meetings of Korean Brain Tumor Society in this year as described below, there will be anticipated hot discussions between members and much progresses in many fields of neuro-oncology as described above, not only in clinical but also in basic research including translational research

Italy

International Report from Italy 
June 10th, 2006 
By Francesco DiMeco, M.D.

A number of initiatives in the forthcoming months are going to strengthen the already close ties between the Italian and the North-American Neurosurgical communities. After the successful 54th Annual Meeting of the Italian Neurosurgical Society held in Turin last December (just weeks prior to the Winter Olympics), which saw a substantial participation of Italian-American and North-American Neurosurgeons to the scientific panel, new exciting gatherings in venues on both sides of the Atlantic are going to fuel the academic exchange between our two communities.  Undoubtedly, these joint initiatives of the recent past have boosted a renewed commitment of the Italian Government to a more substantial support of the field of scientific research with a particular emphasis in Neuro-Oncology.  And on wave of this momentum, it is important to remind the members of the Joint Section on Tumors of the next International Update In Neuro-Oncology  to be held in Memphis, TN on august 24-25 (with a strong presence of outstanding speakers in the field) and of the 11th National Congress of the Italian Association of Neuro-Oncology to be held in Bergamo, Italy, on Oct. 1-4.

In addition, the 56th Annual Meeting of the Italian Neurosurgical Society will be held in conjunction with the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) in Rome on June 24-27, 2007. Following that meeting, an important brain tumor satellite symposium (the II Neuro-oncology Update) is scheduled to take place in Arezzo on June 28-29.  That meeting promises to be as exciting, as far as the scientific content and the social agenda, as the one held in the same Tuscan city in 2005.

Below please find a list of the meetings where the Italian and North-American Neurosurgeons will be very involved in both the scientific panels and organizing committees.

II International Meeting “ Neuro-Oncology Update”
August 25-25, 2006 Memphis, Tennessee

XIth National Congress of the Italian Association of Neuro-Oncology
October 1 - 4, 2006, Bergamo, Italy

55° Congresso Nazionale SINch - Società Italiana di Neurochirurgia
November 19 - 22, 2006, Sorrento

56 Congresso Nazionale SINch – Societa` Italiana di Neurochirurgia e CNS
June 24-27 Rome, Italy

IIl International Meeting “Neuro-Oncology Update” 
June 28-29, 2007 Arezzo, Italy