Sergey Badalyan, Medical Oncology Resident at Yeolyan Hematology and Oncology Center, Assistant Managing Editor at OncoDaily Medical Journal, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Boa tarde from Lisbon 🇵🇹
Arrived in Portugal for an ESMO – European Society for Medical Oncology Gastric Cancer preceptorship this time and today was the first full day of learning, discussions, and trying to keep up with how complex gastric cancer care really is.
The day started with very practical talks around biomarkers and pathology (HER2, MSI, PD-L1, CLDN18.2) and how much the quality of the sample, tumor heterogeneity, and communication with the pathologist can change the next steps for a patient.
There were also interesting discussions on when re-biopsy makes sense, especially when the primary tumor and metastasis may not tell the same story. I liked that this was not presented as a simple ‘yes or no’ question, but more as: will this actually change treatment for the patient?
Another big part was around endoscopy, surgery, and organ preservation. Early gastric cancer can sometimes be managed with less invasive approaches, but only when the assessment is really good.
And for locally advanced disease, the conversation becomes even more MDT-based, who needs surgery, who needs staging laparoscopy, who may benefit from prehabilitation, and when we should avoid overtreating fragile patients.
Radiotherapy also came up in a very realistic way, not as ‘one more treatment to add’, but as something that needs the right indication, the right patient, and the right context.
So yes, first day in Lisbon was intense, but in the best way. A lot of notes, a lot of questions, and a good reminder that gastric cancer care is never just about one guideline or one specialty.
Let’s see what tomorrow brings.”
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