The Oncology Podcast

AGITG ASM 2025: Special Preview

• The Oncology Network presents Experts on Point • Season 1 • Episode 29

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Welcome to Episode 29 of The Oncology Podcast’s Experts On Point series, brought to you by The Oncology Network.

AGITG ASM 2025 Special | 24–27 November | Tarntanya (Adelaide), South Australia

The most exciting ideas in GI oncology rarely come from just one room—or even one country. In this episode, host Rachael Babin sits down with Associate Professor Sina Vatandoust, Convenor of the AGITG 2025 ASM, and Associate Professor Margaret Lee, one of this year’s local speakers. Together, they share a preview of the upcoming meeting and explore how collaboration across Australia, the Asia–Pacific and beyond is helping turn promising concepts into clinical trials that truly make a difference.

Expect discussion on some of the key themes from this year’s program, including early-onset cancer, global oncology insights and radiation oncology breakthroughs—all with survivorship at the heart of the conversation.

We hope you enjoy the episode.

For news and podcast updates subscribe to The Oncology Newsletter,  a free weekly publication for healthcare professionals with an interest in oncology. Click here to subscribe.

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SPEAKER_02:

Hello, I'm Rachel Babin from the Oncology Network. Welcome to the Oncology Podcast's Experts on Points series. Today's episode is a preview of the upcoming Australasian Gastrointestinal Trials Group's annual scientific meeting. To discuss the programme highlights, I'm joined by the convener, Associate Professor Sinan Vattenbust, and local speaker, Associate Professor Margaret Lee. The event runs from the 24th to the 27th of November 2025 in Adelaide. And if you haven't registered yet, there's still time. Visit asm.giancer.org.au for all the details. Thanks for listening. Hi Zina. Hi Margaret. Welcome to the Experts on Point Podcast series.

SPEAKER_00:

Hi, Rachel.

SPEAKER_01:

Hi, Rachel. Thank you so much for having us.

SPEAKER_02:

Ah, it's an absolute pleasure. So we're here to talk about the 2025 AGITG ASM, which this year is being held from the 24th to the 27th of November in Tartania, Adelaide, South Australia. But see as neither of you have been on the show before, let's get to know you a bit better. Cena, can you tell us something surprising about yourself?

SPEAKER_00:

Surprising. Yes. So I had a week off last week and I split my time between two very different things. Part of it was preparing some data for the European Society of Medical Oncology, which is next week, which is not very surprising. But the rest of the week I spent making a wooden sword for my seven-year-old daughter. And I found it very interesting in the sense that between the two different things, there were a lot of similarities. You have to sort of envisage the end result and plan it step by step until you get what you started as an idea.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, what a fantastic project.

SPEAKER_01:

Can you make ones in mine, my daughter?

SPEAKER_00:

There's a business idea there. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, absolutely. Or or uh make your own kits. My daughter would be on that list as well. She's been making uh Anglo-Saxon shields and amulets, so I think a sword would go down very well. And Margaret, what about you? Can you tell us something surprising about yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

Um well, it just so happens that at Melbourne I work at Eastern Health and Western Health. So if I manage to add on Southern and Northern, I'll have managed to capture all four points on the compass.

SPEAKER_02:

So now we'll move on to the meeting. Cena, you are convening this year. What's the big picture for this year's meeting? What do you want people to take away?

SPEAKER_00:

This year's focus is on collaboration and partnership in clinical trials. The big picture is to explore collaboration from different angles, working with consumers and communities, building partnerships across disciplines, and strengthening connections between institutions both nationally and internationally, with a focus in the regional Asia-Pacific and also globally. We've made a deliberate effort to highlight regional and global collaboration with invited speakers from India, Japan, Singapore, and UK. And there's much potential in these regional partnerships, and we really hope this year's ASM serves as a platform to spark new relationships and future projects.

SPEAKER_02:

Collaboration is so important.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. Another exciting addition this year is a focus session on early onset cancers, an area which is of much interest and importance across multiple tumor streams. And we wanted to create a space for these discussions, not just around the biology, but also psychological aspects and survivorship aspects that are so relevant in younger patients.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, I saw that you have for the second plenary one of our podcast hosts appearing. So could you tell us a bit more about Professor Bogda Koswara's talk? And Margaret, I'd love to know your thoughts on why supportive care research matters in the GI space as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we oncologists, we often get caught up in the newest anti-cancer therapy or novel precision biomarker we can test for. But supportive care is essentially about quality of life. So addressing the physical, emotional, practical challenges. And this really resonates with the reason that I and really all of my colleagues practice in the field of clinical oncologies.

SPEAKER_00:

It's an area of interest for me personally. Part of my research has been on survivorship and patient-reported outcomes and measures, which gladly is taking up as an important endpoint in many clinical trials these days. I think the divide between clinical and biological outcomes versus what the patient really sees as important to their life should be bridged with looking at patient-reported measures and patient-reported outcome measures. So I think it's a crucial part of cancer care. It's a crucial part of research, therefore. Your question about uh Bogda, yes, I know Bogda for many years. As you know, she's a real national and international leader in cancer survivorship. I've had the privilege of working with her, and she's been one of my mentors, which has been incredibly inspiring. Uh, she now leads the Australian Research Centre for Cancer Survivorship. And in her session, we're really keen to hear her thoughts on how we can weave survivorship more seamlessly into both clinical care and clinical research. She'll also be touching on how the two um organizations can collaborate to strengthen survivorship research in GI cancers, which is in keeping with the theme of our conference, which is collaboration and partnership.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And part of that collaboration, Tina, I'm also really excited about the challenge workshop on Monday, speaking about survivorship. What are your thoughts on Monday?

SPEAKER_00:

It's going to be informative, it's going to be interesting, and it's going to be something that all of us can take a lot of lessons from. For many years, as you mentioned earlier, we've been working on new molecules, new treatments, which has been incredible. Cancer care has been evolving in a very rapid way since I've started oncology. Over the years, I've seen treatments for many cancers completely revolutionizing how patients are cared for. However, part of this in parallel should also be approaches in management such as exercise, such as additional non-chemical treatments, if you like. And I think that session is a beginning of further collaboration and further research based on that.

SPEAKER_02:

Such a fascinating and groundbreaking study. So, Margaret, I know you're going to be talking as well on CT DNA, which is another exciting area. Can you give us a sneak preview?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, good question. I don't want to give too much away. I'm trying to encourage people to come and listen in person. Um, but the title is What's Ready and What's Not. So I'm going to touch on some ABCs of CT DNA. We're going to do some overviews of the dynamic two, dynamic three, dynamic dynamic rectal studies, particularly in the context of what we do on a day-to-day basis when I'm going to be seeing patients in clinic on the Monday after the ASM. So hopefully some nice practical takeaway points as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Lovely. Thank you. So, Sina, how do you balance the interests of different stakeholders in a meeting like this? You know, lots of different people are involved, medical oncologists, surgeons, researchers, survivors.

SPEAKER_00:

Good question. I think what brings everyone together in a meeting like this is that they all have a common interest in helping their patients, helping their community, and knowing more about the biology and management of cancer. So that is common and we build upon that. The truth is cancer care these days is multidisciplinary, and we all are used to a multidisciplinary approach to the management of patients in different stages of their treatment. In the meantime, a forum like this gives us opportunities to see the clinical issues and research questions from different lenses. And I found it really inspiring to hear presentations from survivors, translational researchers, surgical and radiol radiation oncology colleagues. And I've learned a lot from each and every one of them during these meetings.

SPEAKER_02:

Collaboration across the MTT as well as across the region and the globe.

SPEAKER_01:

Ah, all of them. No. I mean, as you were saying, actually, Rachel, the multidisciplinary debates and panels on the challenges in GI cancers are always very educational, topical, and often entertaining, which is nice. I'm really excited to hear from our international guests, like Taki Yuki Yosino will be talking about the Circulate Japan MRD study. I think that complements really nicely with Patrick Tan's presentation on the Singapore National Precision Medicine Program. We've got a patibillary surgeon, Charles Shikanda, talking about engaging patients in clinical trials in resource-limited environments. And Rebecca Fitzgerald, who developed the cypher sponge, talking about cancer development, you know, the forefront of research. And Connie Yip, the radiation oncologist from Singapore, has many engagements throughout the programme to give her radiation oncology insight as well. So we've even dragged her into a debate with myself on Monday, which will hopefully be entertaining as well as educational. But aside from that, it's also highlighting all the clinical trials, then all the exciting things coming through, perspectives of our patients and lived-in experience guests as well. It'll be an amazing four days.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, there's a lot banked in. I can see you nodding along there, Sina.

SPEAKER_00:

What are your highlights do you think will be so the highlight of this meeting for me is I think the vision of bringing people from across Asia-Pacific specifically is one of the highlights of this meeting. We have traditional sort of collaborators from countries such as the United States, Canada, UK, Europe who've helped in designing and conducting clinical trials over the years. But having people from India, Japan, Singapore, I think there's a lot of potential there. And I personally think this is one of the highlights of this meeting. In a way, thinking outside the box uh for our collaborations is what I think we should really focus on. The second highlight, early onset cancers uh is again another uh area of interest for me. And uh I think we should have a spotlight on this important issue uh in this meeting and hopefully future meetings as well, because it is a growing problem. Our focus this time is on survivorship to begin with. I think the survivorship bit is really going to be interesting, and I'm really looking forward to that bit uh in younger patients.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, fantastic. Margaret, are there any key awards or grants you'd like to draw attention to?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, absolutely. I mean, AJTG has a very strong tradition of recognizing and supporting excellence. There's the John Salzburg AO Award and the Early Career Research Award, which is um always very inspiring, I find. We have the Russell Conley Anal Cancer Grant this year, which is obviously very poignant after his passing last year. And the New Concept Symposium, I always find very exciting and interesting. And it's lovely to hear the innovative pictures and then get real-time feedback from our national and international leaders as well. Lots of things to look forward to.

SPEAKER_02:

So, yes, sounds like there is a lot to look forward to. Sina, what advice would you give to someone in their early career, perhaps attending the ASM for their first time?

SPEAKER_00:

I tell you a story. Many years ago, when I started my medical oncology career as a trainee, I engaged with AGITG very early on. It gave me an incredible opportunity to engage with prominent researchers and mentors, uh, and specifically helped me with my first grant, which later became a major part of my future studies and my PhD. Among the trialist groups, and I'm a member of a few of them, AGITG in particular is very friendly, uh, a very friendly forum for early career researchers. We have the machinery to help research ideas turn into real research proposals and clinical trials. And my advice to my younger self is yes, AGITG is the right place to start your research and continue your research if you have an interest in GI cancer research and treatments.

SPEAKER_02:

And just before we go, I hear we might expect a big announcement at this year's meeting. Can you share any details?

SPEAKER_00:

It's going to be an exciting change that is coming. I'll leave it at that and just say you just need to come along and join the ASM to find out more.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, good teaser. Exciting. So finally, in one sentence, what are you personally most looking forward to?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh so what I'm looking forward to is uh seeing some of the research ideas that we have seen evolving over multiple meetings and discussions with uh our colleagues uh now turning into real research projects, some of them into real trials, and some of those trials presenting their data. Uh, seeing an idea evolving into results like this, which ultimately uh will be benefiting our patients here and globally is truly inspiring.

SPEAKER_02:

Fascinating seeing the process from the beginning to the end. Not unlike uh making wooden swords, I'm sure. And to you, Margaret.

SPEAKER_01:

You've got it. Um Well, I'm looking forward to catching up with friends, old and new, to strengthen our collaboration in GL trials, which ultimately improves our patients and their families' cancer journeys. And that is essentially why we do what we do. So um a lot to look forward to.

SPEAKER_02:

That's a great way to end our preview. I'm sure it's going to be another fantastic meeting, as always. So thank you both for sharing your thoughts with me.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks, Rachel. Always a pleasure. You've been listening to the Oncology Podcast's Experts on Point series brought to you by the Oncology Network. To explore more podcast episodes, visit our oncology portal at oncologynetwork.com.au. Registration is free for healthcare professionals and gives you access to exclusive content and educational podcasts. If you found today's episode valuable, please share it with your colleagues. And if you have exciting research or news to share, we'd love to hear from you. I'm Rachel Bamin. Thanks for tuning in to the Oncology Podcast.