European Chapter Congress of the IGCA
EGCC 2026 – Kraków
2–3 October 2026
Room A (Main Hall)
DAY 1 – FRIDAY, 2 OCTOBER
SESSION 1 (08:30–10:15) – Room A (Main Hall)
Gastric Cancer State-of-the-Art Education in Western Countries
Chairs: Piotr Richter (Poland), Hans Meyer (Germany), William Allum (United Kingdom)
08:30–08:45 Opening lecture – History of gastric surgery in Kraków – Ryszard Gryglewski (Poland), Arkadiusz Jawień (Poland)
08:45–09:00 AI in diagnosis – Seung-Hun Chon (Germany)
09:00–09:15 AI in Pathology – Heike Grabsch (Netherlands)
09:15–09:30 AI in Surgery – Pietro Mascagni (Italy)
09:30–09:45 Training in robotic surgery – Richard van Hillegersberg (Netherlands)
09:45–10:00 How to teach young surgeons open gastrectomy? – Osvaldo Antonio Prado Castro (Brasil)
10:00–10:15 Discussion
10:15–10:45 COFFEE BREAK
SESSION 2 (10:45–13:00) – Room A (Main Hall)
Video Teaching – How we do it
Chairs: Carlos A. García Carrasco (Chile), Wojciech Kielan (Poland), Paul Schneider (Switzerland)
10:45–10:55 Open D2 lymph node dissection in the East – Takeshi Sano (Japan)
10:55–11:05 Open D2 lymph node dissection in the West – Henk Hartgrink (Netherlands)
11:05–11:15 Laparoscopic D2 lymph node dissection in the East – Jiafu Ji (China)
11:15–11:25 Laparoscopic D2 lymph node dissection in the West – Michał Pędziwiatr (Poland)
11:25–11:35 Robotic D2 lymph node dissection in the East – Han-Kwang Yang (Korea)
11:35–11:45 Robotic D2 lymph node dissection in the West – Suzanne S. Gisbertz (Netherlands)
11:45–12:05 D2+ lymphadenectomy – Franco Roviello (Italy)
12:05–12:20 Open esophago-jejunal anastomosis – Stefan Mönig (Switzerland)
12:20–12:35 Laparoscopic esophago-jejunal anastomosis – Maciej Michalik (Poland)
12:35–12:50 Robotic esophago-jejunal anastomosis – Peter Grimminger (Germany)
12:50–13:00 Discussion
13:00–14:00 LUNCH
SESSION 3 (14:00–16:00) – Room A (Main Hall)
Multidisciplinary Case Discussion
Chairs: Markus Moehler (Germany), Arnulf Hölscher (Germany), Paulo Kassab (Brasil)
14:00–14:15 Locally advanced gastric cancer – Lúcio Lara Santos (Portugal)
14:15–14:30 Oligometastatic gastric cancer – Mickael Chevallay (Switzerland)
14:30–14:45 Conversion surgery – Maria Bencivenga (Italy)
14:45–16:00 Discussion panel: Giovanni De Manzoni (Italy), Magnus Nilsson (Sweden), Florian Lordick (Germany), Radka Obermannová (Czech Republic), Rupert Langer (Austria), Hilal Şahin (Turkey)
16:00–16:15 COFFEE BREAK
SESSION 4 (16:15–17:30) – Room A (Main Hall)
Hot Topics in Gastric Cancer
Chairs: Manuel Pera (Spain), Wojciech Polkowski (Poland), Enver İlhan (Turkey)
16:15–16:30 Proximal gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer – Felix Berlth (Germany)
16:30–16:45 Stage II gastric cancer – TBA
16:45–17:00 Best robotic system – Simone Giacopuzzi (Italy)
17:00–17:15 Indexes of surgical quality – Daniele Marrelli (Italy)
17:15–17:30 Discussion
19:00 Congress Social Event (Departure 18:30)
DAY 2 – SATURDAY, 3 OCTOBER
SESSION 5 (08:30–10:00) – Room A (Main Hall)
Current Relevant Clinical Trials in Europe
Chairs: Radka Obermannová (Czech Republic), Magnus Nilsson (Sweden), Marek Sierżęga (Poland)
08:30–08:45 POLA trial – Karol Rawicz‑Pruszyński (Poland)
08:45–08:55 CONTRO‑GAST study – Erman Aytaç (Turkey)
08:55–09:05 CONVERGENCE trial – Jimmy So (Singapore)
09:05–09:15 PUMA trial – Federica Filippini (Italy)
09:15–09:25 IPa-Gastric trial – Lisa Liu Burström (Sweden)
09:25–09:35 PERISCOPE II trial – Johanna van Sandick (Netherlands)
09:35–09:45 GASTRODATA 2.0 – Gian Luca Baiocchi (Italy)
09:45-09:55 OMEGA trial – Suzanne S. Gisbertz (Netherlands)
09:55–10:00 Summary
SESSION 6 (10:00–10:30) – Room A (Main Hall)
Lecture: The Immunotherapy Era
Introduction – Han-Kwang Yang (Korea)
Speaker – Florian Lordick (Germany)
10:30–11:00 COFFEE BREAK
SESSION 7 (11:00–12:45) – Room A (Main Hall)
New aspects of neoadjuvant, adjuvant and surgical techniques.
Chairs: Giovanni De Manzoni (Italy), Paulo Costa (Portugal), Grzegorz Wallner Poland),
11:00–11:15 Non‑operative management for esophageal cancer – Bas Wijnhoven (Netherlands)
11:15–11:30 Non‑operative management for MSI gastric cancer – Markus Moehler (Germany)
11:30–11:45 D‑FLOT as a new standard for LAGC – Radka Obermannová (Czech Republic)
11:45–12:00 Organ sparing – speaker TBA
12:00–12:15 Transgastric resection – speaker TBA
12:15–12:30 Fluorescence and image guided surgery – Mark van Berge Henegouwen (Netherlands)
12:30–12:45 Discussion
SESSION 8 (14:00–15:00) – Room A (Main Hall)
Gastric Cancer Survivorship and Patient Optimization
Chairs: Sheraz Markar (UK), Pauli Puolakkainen (Finland), Maria Bencivenga (Italy)
14:00–14:10 EGA CURE registry – Judith Gebauer (Germany)
14:10–14:20 SARONG‑II trial – Jessie Elliott (Ireland)
14:20–14:30 QoL after gastrectomy – speaker TBA (Sweden)
14:30–14:40 Surveillance after complete clinical remission – Alberto Leone (Italy)
14:40–15:00 Discussion
15:00–16:00 European Chapter IGCA – Assembly – Room A (Main Hall)
Chairs: Stefan Mönig (Switzerland), Franco Roviello (Italy), Wojciech Polkowski (Poland)
Room B (Parallel Sessions)
DAY 1 – FRIDAY, 2 OCTOBER (PARALLEL)
10.45 – 11:45 IGCA Poorly Cohesive Working Group
Fatima Carneiro (Portugal), Heike Grabsch (Netherlands), Rupert Langer (Austria),
11:45 – 12:45 IGCA Robotic Gastrectomy Working Group
Maria Bencivenga (Italy), Sheraz Markar (UK)
14:00 – 16:00 Video Presentations
12 × 10 min, 3 Chairs
DAY 2 – SATURDAY, 3 OCTOBER (PARALLEL)
8:30 – 10:30 Oral Presentations
12 × 10 min, 3 Chairs
11:00 – 12:00 IGCA Oligometastatic Working Group
Paolo Morgagni (Italy)