The 3rd International Surgical Oncology Symposium (ISOS), hosted by the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS), will take place on 6 & 7 September 2024.
This year's theme, ‘Blades and Bytes: Harnessing AI & Technology in Surgical Oncology’ will explore the integration of artificial intelligence and advanced technology in surgical oncology.
Key highlights include:
Leading experts from around the world will present on innovations in early detection, personalised therapy, and surgical techniques for metastatic disease. Attendees will benefit from interactive sessions and networking opportunities with top professionals in the field.
(Click here to download the event flyer)
Theme: Blades and Bytes; Harnessing AI and Technology in Surgical Oncology
Abstract Submission Instructions
All abstract submissions are free.
All abstracts are to be submitted via email to [email protected]. You will receive a confirmation email that acknowledges the receipt of your abstract. You will also be assigned with an Abstract ID in the confirmation email.
All abstracts submitted must contain work related to Oncology but not restricted to the ISOS theme.
All abstracts are limited to 300 characters, excluding abstract title and authors' affiliations in Word Document.
Contents of each abstract should include:
Organise the abstract according to four sections, identified by the following headers: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions.
Tables are allowed.
List all individual authors for each abstract.
Submit your authors' affiliations in the following sample format:
Hui Xin Tan (1,2), 1 Department of Surgical Oncology, National University Health System, 2 Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Abstract Submission Categories
Responsibilities of the First Author
Selection Process
Awards
Awards will be given to best poster presentations for selected categories.
The Scientific Committee will rate each poster presentation. The award recipients will be announced during the Award Presentation Ceremony at ISOS 2024
Click here to download the full 2-day programme (PDF attachment).
Day 1
Day 2
 A/Prof Sheraz Markar Director of Surgical Interventional Trials Unit, Nuffield Department of Surgery, University of Oxford | A/Prof Sheraz qualified in Medicine from Cambridge University in 2007. He undertook his academic and surgical training in Cambridge, London, Seattle, Stockholm and Oxford, including NIHR Doctoral Research & Clinical Trials Fellowship and NIHR Academic Clinical Lectureship. He has completed two PhD degrees, at Imperial College London developing a breath test for oesophago-gastric cancer and at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, concerning complex statistical modelling of surgical outcomes from oesophagectomy. He has a strong academic and clinical interest in the management of benign and malignant upper gastrointestinal disease, with over 300 publications. He is a member and chair of several surgical committees including European Association of Endoscopic Surgery and European Society for Diseases of the Esophagus and has received several research awards including the Royal College of Surgeons Hunterian Professorship 2020 and United European Gastroenterology Rising Star 2019. |
 A/Prof Sheraz Markar Consultant Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgeon, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Dr Anita Balakrishnan is a Consultant Hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) Surgeon at the Cambridge Hepatopancreatobiliary Unit, Affiliated Assistant Professor, and a Fellow of Selwyn College at the University of Cambridge. She is a Regional Surgical Adviser for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Surgical Tutor for the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and Member of Council of the EAHPBA. Her clinical research interests include cholangiocarcinoma and the management of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms. She is Chief Investigator of the multicenter Pancreatic Cyst Evaluation (PaCE) study and the international OMEGA collaborative study on gallbladder cancer, and NIHR Regional Subspecialty Lead for HPB Surgery. |
 Dr Sonal Asthana Lead Consultant, Senior Hepatopancreatobiliary and Multi-organ Transplant Surgeon, Aster Hospitals | Dr Sonal Asthana is a trained hepatobiliary and transplant surgeon with work experience in leading centres in North America, UK and India. He has completed an American Society of transplant surgeons-accredited fellowship at the University of Alberta hospital, Edmonton, Canada. Dr Asthana has authored more than 35 peer-reviewed papers, and has won international awards for basic and clinical research. His research has been supported by competitive grant funding from both government and industry partners. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore / KLE Belgaum / Yenepoya University Mangalore; and an Honorary Consultant at the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute. He is also a Member of the Apex Technical Committee, National Organ Tissue and Transplant Organization (NOTTO), Government of India. |
 A/Prof Glenn Bonney Senior Consultant | A/Prof Bonney is an internationally renowned expert in the field of liver transplantation, hepatocellular carcinoma, colorectal liver metastasis and pancreas cancer. He has trained and worked in two of the world's leading liver/pancreas surgery and transplant centres alongside some of the pioneers of surgery in this field. His primary interest is in minimally invasive surgery (laparoscopic and robotic) for primary and secondary malignancies of the liver, pancreas and gallbladder, donor/recipient matching for liver transplantation and extending donor criteria. Recently his interest in liver transplantation as well as surgical oncology culminated in him leading a team of world leaders in writing the first consensus for liver transplantation for Stage 4 colorectal cancer. Subsequently he proceeded to perform the first such transplant in Asia. His clinical research has resulted in him receiving many international awards, accolades and societal board membership, with the most significant of these being Presidential Award of the International Hepatopancreaticobiliary Association (Seoul 2014). He is a prolific academic surgeon and has written and presented numerous publications, books and lectures to share his experiences and best practices. He is also the recipient of several national and international grants that enable him to perform cutting edge research in hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic cancer and colorectal liver metastasis in his laboratories at iHealthtech, NUS. |
 Prof Jimmy So Head & Senior Consultant | After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1991, Prof So received his surgical training at National University Hospital, Singapore. He trained in upper gastrointestinal surgery, surgical oncology, bariatric surgery, therapeutic endoscopy and minimally invasive surgery, before progressing to fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA and was later appointed as visiting consultant surgeon in Esophageal and Gastric Surgery at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He also received fellowship training in gastric and esophageal cancer surgery in Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. He is the pioneer in endoscopic surgery for early esophageal and gastric cancers, robotic surgery and Peroral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM) for Achalasia in Singapore. Prof So's special interests are in gastric and esophageal cancers. To this end, he established a multidisciplinary programme for esophageal and gastric cancers (Upper GI Tumour Group) in 2005. He is also a founding member of Asia-Pacific Bariatric Surgery Society. Prof So is a member of editorial board of medical journals such as Gastric Cancer, Journal of Gastric Cancer and Translational Medicine. |
 Adj A/Prof Chee Cheng Ean Executive Director | Adj A/Prof Chee Cheng Ean is the Executive Director of the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore. In this role, she provides leadership and direction, facilitates operations and is responsible for implementing strategic initiatives for NCIS (pronounced N-CIS), which is the only public, academic cancer center in Singapore treating both pediatric and adult cancers in one facility. Adj A/Prof Chee is also a senior consultant, gastrointestinal (GI) oncologist and clinician investigator. Her portfolio includes clinical and research initiatives in precision oncology and clinical trials involving novel therapeutics in GI cancers which have been awarded institutional and national grant funding. She also leads the cancer survivorship programme at NCIS and is a proponent of value-based healthcare initiatives. |
 Prof Lawrence Ho Khek-Yu Senior Consultant | Professor Ho is Professor of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS); Senior Consultant, National University Hospital (NUH); and Director, Centre for Innovation in Healthcare, National University Health System (NUHS). Besides being an accomplished endoscopist, he is an established international key opinion leader, being conferred the honorary International Life Membership of the Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy of India, and made Fellow of Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society, to recognise his significant contributions to the field of gastrointestinal endoscopy. He is also the Founding Co-Chairs Gut & Obesity in Asia (“Go Asia”) Workgroup, and the USA NIH-NCS initiated Asian Barrett’s Consortium. A proven clinician innovator and experienced entrepreneur, he co-invented the Master and Slave Transluminal Endoscopic Robot (MASTER), which has since been spun-off into the start-up, Endomaster Pte Ltd. He also founded two other start-up companies, Endofotonics Pie Ltd, a molecular AI based realtime diagnostic system, and Endopil Pte Ltd, an ingestible weight loss balloon capsule. He has held 6 US-granted patents in medtech products. |
.png?sfvrsn=e0374459_1) A/Prof Ngiam Kee Yuan Senior Consultant | A/Prof Ngiam Kee Yuan is a clinician scientist with 131 publications and 3461 citations, ranging from clinical science to artificial intelligence. He was awarded the NMRC CIDA award in 2021, which resulted in the development of new AI tools, a patent, and high impact publications in Lancet Oncology [IF 36.418, citied 1041 times] and Nature Digital medicine [IF=15.2]. He is among the world's top 2% of highly-cited researchers by Stanford University-Elsevier survey in 2023. His professional interests are innovations in surgery and artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. He has founded numerous platforms and programs, including the DISCOVERY AI, ENDEAVOUR AI, the NUHS Holomedicine and MiSSi cloud robotics program. He is also a recipient of multiple grants including the Ministry of Health Innovation grant, HOIC Enterprise Singapore grant, and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) 5G grant. He holds multiple patents in surgery and AI technology. A/Prof Ngiam is currently the Head and Senior Consultant, Division of General Surgery (Endocrine & Thyroid Surgery), Department of Surgery, at NUH and Group Chief Technology Officer at the National University Health System. |
 Adj Asst Prof Foo Fung Joon Senior Consultant | Adj Asst Prof Foo Fung Joon did his medical training in the UK at Nottingham followed by surgical training in Leeds and Manchester. At the end of his specialist training, he completed a Colorectal Fellowship at Singapore General Hospital. He then did a fellowship in Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Paris awarded by the European Society for Coloproctology. He was then appointed as a colorectal consultant in Singapore General Hospital and later Sengkang General Hospital. He was the founding head of service for colorectal surgery from 2018 to 2023. He setup the hospital parenteral nutrition service, gastrointestinal function lab and perioperative optimisation service. His interests include colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, surgical nutrition and global health. |
 A/Prof Johnny Ong Senior Consultant | Associate Professor Johnny Ong trained at NCCS in the management of peritoneal disease and sarcomas. For his fellowship, he trained at one of the largest soft tissue sarcoma units in Europe, The Royal Marsden Hospital, UK, and also underwent a clinical observership at the renowned Sarcoma Unit in the Instituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan. His clinical interest is in the field of advance management of melanoma, sarcoma and peritoneal metastases. In 2013, Dr Ong obtained his PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK, and is currently the Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of Applied Human Genetics in NCCS and a Joint Research Clinician at IMCB, A*STAR. Dr Ong has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles and is a member of the Singapore Peritoneal Oncology Study (SPOS) Group and Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium. Beyond academic pursuits, his research interest lies in the field of therapeutics. He is currently working together with different academic and industrial agencies to develop therapeutic agents to target PC. |
 Dr Gao Yujia Consultant | Dr Gao Yujia is a Consultant Surgeon in Liver, Pancreas, and Liver Transplant Surgery at the National University Hospital in Singapore. As the Assistant Group Chief Technology Officer for the National University Health System, Dr Gao is involved in the research and development of immersive technology and its application in clinical care and education, and digital-twin projects. He works extensively with Mixed Reality (MR) technology, utilising MR devices to deliver cutting edge capabilities to clinicians including 3D holographic imaging, real-time computer-vision based imaged analysis, and multisource data integration. He is also responsible for the integration and implementation of 5G wireless technology for hospital infrastructure development and building of secured high-speed integrated data networks. |
 Dr Lowell Leow Associate Consultant | Dr Lowell Leow is a Singaporean cardiothoracic surgeon who graduated from NUS Medicine in 2012. He entered cardiothoracic surgery residency in 2013 and graduated as valedictorian in 2021. During his residency, Dr Lowell served as chief resident and was also chairman of the NUH Resident's Subcommittee. He has also been actively involved in research and mentoring medical students. Dr Lowell has an interest in minimally invasive (keyhole) lung and chest surgery. Aside from clinical work, Dr Lowell believes in the future of healthcare sustainability and leaving a healthier world for his two young sons. |
 Dr Swati Jain Associate Consultant | Dr Swati Jain completed her bachelors degree in biomedical engineering at National University of Singapore in 2010 and subsequently pursued medicine at Duke-NUS Medical School. She was accepted into the neurosurgical residency program at National University Health System in 2015, completing the residency program in 2021. She graduated with the highest scores in the exit examination (Fellowship of Royal College of Surgeons (Ediburgh) in Surgical Neurology). She completed a one year neurotrauma fellowship at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom under the supervision of Prof Peter Hutchinson, Mr Adel Helmy and Mr Ivan Timofeev. Her neurosurgical practice focuses on neuro-oncology, skull base tumours, degenerative spine and neurotrauma. She is particularly interested in understanding language representation in multilingual individuals, which she will be pursuing as a PhD at Christ's College, University of Cambridge. |
 Dr Serene Goh Si Ning Associate Consultant, | Dr Serene Goh is a breast surgical oncologist and researcher in breast cancer management. Her research focus has been on the integration of AI to streamline data acquisition and enhance clinical decision-making. She was awarded the NCIS 16th Anniversary Grant in 2024 for her project "AI Management Tool in Breast Cancer," which aims to reduce administrative burdens and improve treatment outcomes through innovative AI solutions. Similarly, she is also supported by the NUHS Clinician Scientist Program Grant (NCSP 2.0), to conduct multi-reader multi-case study on AI’s impact on mammographic breast cancer detection rates. She has been involved in reviews proposing a governance framework for AI in breast cancer screening programmes. Her contributions have garnered international recognition, including the Young Investigator Award at the Global Breast Cancer Conference 2023.Dr. Serene is dedicated to fostering a collaborative research community among clinicians in the Asia Pacific region. Her overarching goal is to advance women's health outcomes through innovative research and by building a robust network of clinicians dedicated to breast cancer research and treatment. |
 Dr Ayesha Khanna Co-founder and CEO | Dr Ayesha Khanna, co-founder and CEO of Addo, is a leading AI expert and Forbes-recognised entrepreneur with 20 over years of experience in digital transformation. Holding degrees from Harvard, Columbia, and the London School of Economics, and having spent over a decade on Wall Street, she advises CEOs on AI and data transformations and serves on boards such as Johnson Controls, NEOM Tonomus, and L'Oreal's scientific advisory board. A passionate advocate for inclusivity and diversity, Dr Khanna provides AI education scholarships to girls and mid-career women through her education company, Amplify. |
Ms Jody Ng
NCIS Operations & Administration
National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS)
For all enquiries, please write in to[email protected].
