The 11th Meeting of The Asia Pacific Musculoskeletal Tumour Society,  April 21-23 2016 Singapore

Closing Report

This year's meeting was a resounding success. All told there were 435 registrants and 398 delegates comprising 261 foreign guests and 137 local participants. We had an overwhelming number of submissions from which we selected 267 papers for 90 oral presentation and 171 posters. A special feature of the selection process was a blinded online system that permitted a homogenous mix of international reviewers that were able to submit their reviews online. The President's dinner was a well-attended review of the business district shoreline as we settled to dinner and entertainment and the Gala dinner was given the usual cosmopolitan Singapore flair followed by the the customary country performances. We continue to host the pictures and videos for the event here.  Significant changes to the APMSTS constitution will now recognize all delegates to the APMSTS as members and a member's forum followed by the advisory committee meeting to provide more focused direction will be convened moving forward. In addition, we have enacted the Yoshio Ogihara lectureship to be conferred on the immediate past president which will be inaugurated at the next meeting in India in 2018. The inaugural speaker is to be Dr Saminathan Suresh Nathan from Singapore. The President, Prof Saminathan Suresh Nathan, would like to extend his most heartfelt thanks to all who have contributed to the meeting and we look forward to seeing everyone again in the meeting in India.

Organizing Committee

APMSTS 2014-2016

Singapore

"The ones we left behind - An appraisal of the problems we haven't solved"

Message from the President

The Asia Pacific Musculoskeletal Tumour Society was the inevitable culmination of the thought processes and techniques that had been developed in the East. Where in the West the origins of limb salvage derived from the work of Ralph Marcove in service of the people of his faith and thence to a wider and more comprehensive consideration leading ultimately to the use of allografts and synthetic materials, in the East the added dimensions of cost containment in a largely uninsured community, ethnic considerations and chemotherapeutic inconsistency resulted in large scale applications of recycled tissue and microsurgical technique. This spawned a number of ingenious methods in overcoming the challenges posed by patients with bone and joint tumors. In the 1993 ISOLS meeting in Singapore, a number of our Asian forebears decided it was time for a forum of our own. This lead to the first APMSTS meeting in 1995 in Japan. The intrepid Asian pioneers in the field have themselves spawned their descendants who now lead the way in their own novel approaches to problems. This background continues to evolve within the Economic powerhouse that Asia has now become. Implants and drugs are now manufactured regionally. That which was art is now characterised fully within scientific datasets and we now boast the level of publication unheard of 20 years ago. Our society has been instrumental in this evolution in raising the standards of care through research and collaboration across our diverse cultures. 

Singapore has been granted the honor of hosting the meeting under my humble care from 2014 to 2016. The 11th APMSTS Meeting will be held in Singapore from 21 - 23 April 2016 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel.  With the support from the Singapore Orthopaedic Association and Mount Elizabeth Hospital, the meeting is aimed to provide an encompassing environment for presenting research in the Asia Pacific region, responding to a desire among participants for more clinical experiences in challenging problems. It will present a multi-disciplinary platform involving healthcare providers across all areas related to the care of bone and joint tumor treatment. We are expecting 300 or more medical specialists with a mixture of local and foreign participants. The comprehensive scientific committee comprised of medical and allied health specialists has assembled an exciting panel of experts from across the globe to discuss and address the advances in chemotherapy, imaging and surgical technique in treatment of bone and soft tissue tumors.  The theme this year will be: "The ones we left behind - An appraisal of the problems we haven't solved" with a special focus on the residual conditions not effectively dealt with in present management paradigms ie. non-responders, late cancer relapse and second tumors, late problems of reconstructions, long-term results of treatment, etc. 

It would in be my great honor if you would join us in celebrating our forebears of the past 20 years as we look to the next 20 years. Singapore welcomes the APMSTS in 2016, Singapore welcomes the APMSTS home!

Saminathan Suresh Nathan

President

Asia Pacific Musculoskeletal Tumour Society

Invited Speakers (Confirmed)

Scientific Committee

Delegate Liason and Hospitality

Abstract Submission 

Submission of abstracts is open from October 1st 2015 to January 15th 2016. Click here to submit now.

The system of submission is fully automated and blinded. Submitted abstracts will be circulated to at least 2 reviewers picked at random from the members of the scientific committee. A point system will be used and collated for the discretionary approval of the Chair of the Scientific Committee. Alignment with the provided topics is strongly recommended as follows:

1.       Advancements in adjunctive technology

·         Getting close to ground zero

2.       Basic science

·         Moving towards comprehensive genomic screening of musculoskeletal tumors

3.       Benign bone tumours

·         Natural history of benign conditions, when less is not more

4.       Biological reconstructions

·         Getting closer to the ideal

5.       Chemotherapy (including radiation)

·         Optimizing surgical outcomes through  (chemotherapeutic and radiation) adjuvant intervention

6.       Endoprosthesis

·         Lessons from the past as insights for the future

7.       International collaboration

·         How  nations can come together

8.       Metastasis

·         Defining the boundaries of intervention

9.       Paediatric sarcoma

·         Do children heal because of us or despite us

10.   Pelvic and sacral tumour

·         Alternative strategies when traditional  methods fall short

11.   Soft tissue sarcoma

·         Controversies in soft tissue sarcoma (diagnostic failures, chemotherapeutic efficacy)

12.   Surgical margin

·         How surgical margin affects local recurrence

13.   Surgical techniques in musculoskeletal oncology

·         Putting aside our differences for our patients

Registration

Registration for the 11th APMSTS Meeting is now available here.

Registration Fees (in Singapore Dollars)

Gala Dinner – 22 April

When registering online, please verify that your registration fee is correct before submitting payment. For questions regarding your registration category or to submit documentation, please email registration@apmsts.com. The management will ensure that all meals served at the sessions and Gala dinner will not contain pork or pork products in respect of all delegates. As alcohol will be available on premises we are unable to provide the Halal stamp of approval.

Registration Entitlements

All attendees who have registered can receive your meeting materials at the Registration Counters.  Please bring a copy of your registration confirmation. 

·         Certificate of Attendance

·         Name Badge

·         Gala Dinner ticket(s) – if appropriate

·         11th APMSTS Program Booklet

·         Dual Head USB Thumb Drive – storage of 11th APMSTS Meeting abstracts

·         Power Bank – 11th APMSTS Meeting souvenir

Payment Methods

You will be requested to enter your credit card information.  American Express, Visa, MasterCard are accepted.

Kindly take note that Citystate Travel Pte Ltd is appointed to handle the collections for the 11th APMSTS Meeting.  All credit card charges will be made through the merchant name “Citystate Travel Pte Ltd”.

A confirmation will be sent to the email address(es) provided.

Registration Information

The Registration Counters are located at the 4th level Foyer of the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel.  Operation hours of the Registration Counters will be as follows:

Wednesday, 20 April                 16:00 – 20:00

Thursday, 21 April                     08:00 – 17:00

Friday, 22 April                          08:00 – 17:00

Saturday, 23 April                      08:00 – 12:00

Cancellation and Refund Policy

To cancel your registration, a written request for a refund must be received in the 11th APMSTS office by 21 March 2016.  No refunds are issued after this date.

Accommodation 

Kindly submit all requests for accommodation here.

Citystate Travel is proud to be affiliated with APMSTS and will be providing relevant services for your accommodation during the meeting.  Please make your booking promptly. Citystate Travel is your advocate if a dispute or problem arises and is also available to assist housing questions or concerns. Please write to henry.pang@citystate.travel

Kindly take note when making a reservation

·           Room reservations are confirmed with one night non-refundable deposit

·           Balance payment will be made on or before 7 April 2016

·           In the event that your travel dates change after making a reservation, please notify Citystate Travel.

·           Hotel rates are valid from 20 – 24 April 2016.

·           Cancellation / No Show Policy

o    A cancellation charge equivalent to one night charge is levied in the event of cancellation for each confirmed reservation.

o    Any cancellation made on or after 7 April 2016 is subject to full cancellation charge based on full length of stay as per original room reservation request.

o    In the event of early departure or no show, the full length of stay based on original reservation at the time of booking is levied.

o    Any refund, if any must be settled within seven days after closing of the event.

Detailed information on accommodation may be had here.

Gala dinner

Regarded by many as the highlight of the meeting.The night of fellowship will feature, as in past years, the showcased (and unofficial) talents of the many delegates in the country event. Come prepared.....

Best Poster Award

The top 10 posters based on scientific scores will be given pride of place in the exhibition hall. Attractive prizes will be awarded on the final day of the meeting. 

Out of all the excellent finalists picked from the highest ranked papers of each section, the 2 finalists were:

1. Cytototoxic effects of zoledronic acid loaded HA/Bone cement of several cancer lines” (JAPAN)

2. Symptomatic Small Schwannoma is a Risk Factor for Surgical Complications and Correlates with Difficulty of Enucleation: A Retrospective Cohort Study (JAPAN)

Delegate Gifts

The 11th APMSTS’s organising committee is happy to present you with the following souvenirs for the meeting.  Please collect them at the Registration Counters onsite.

• Power Bank 

The power bank comes in silver and has a capacity of 2800mAh.   It can recharge your smartphone for an approximate of 1.5 times (varies with phone models and brands). Using a power bank is the best option than change the battery of your smartphone on-the-go.

• Dual Head USB Thumb Drive

All the abstracts of the 11th APMSTS will be stored in this 8GB thumb drive. This allows for the delegates to access and read the PDFs in comfort through their smartphones*, tablets* or notebooks/laptops. (* Micro USB head for use with most Android Phones. Users of iPhone and iPads will require a Lightning to Micro USB Adapter to access the files.)  Offering 8GB of additional storage, the Dual Head USB Thumb Drive gives you more capacity for big photo or music libraries and plenty of room to move yesterday’s videos off your tablet or smartphone so you have room to capture what’s happening today.

Updates will be available on this website as they happen. In the meantime here's some useful information (use the arrow keys to advance slides)......

And a little bit of what to expect in 2016.....

For more information please visit our national tourism board site : http://www.yoursingapore.com/en.html

Confirmed sponsors

Acknowledgments

Our thanks to J&J and Synthes for provision of educational support.