President's Message

I am honoured to be elected as President of BASO~ACS from November 2021 for two years, the world's second oldest surgical society, celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. I first encountered BASO as a surgical trainee in 2003 and presented a paper at the BASO Conference, which was published in the EJSO (BASO's in-house Journal). The organisation held interesting meetings, covering the areas of cancer surgery that general surgical trainees had to cover.

These meetings allowed insights into surgical cancer treatments in other disciplines.

The majority of surgical cancer specialists have now been trained totally in the era of subspecialty and apart from early experience in a range of topics, have had a little senior experience of other cancer management outside their own. One of the significant benefits of being in BASO is that it allows the surgeons to hear about cutting-edge research and cancer management in all solid cancer surgical sites. Despite the separation of cancer type management and many concepts, both surgical and adjuvant cross the boundaries.

It is recognised, although not widely understood by the general public or even those with responsibility for health matters, that most cures for cancer are surgical, whether it's a simple resection or a complex operation. As surgical treatment improves, we have to ensure that the experience of surviving also enhances - the quality of life is vitally important, and this is part of the surgical ethos.

BASO~ACS is a charity, and our remit is to advance the science of cancer surgery and to educate. We want to educate each other at a senior level, to hear the best surgical talents in the world discussing their work and expectations. We need to teach our colleagues in training not only about research and the best management of cancers but also to have an enquiring open mind - because there will be significant changes during their working lives. We can see the start of the genomic and robotic revolution, but there are also the "unknown unknowns" that will affect the ways of working for our the present trainees in 20 -30 years. BASO~ACS works for the future of cancer research and treatment. As a charity, we sponsor trainees' research, and we also send our stars of the future to get an experience of the best surgical cancer treatment in the world with the Ronald Raven Travelling Fellowship. In addition, we have a very successful NIHR partnership which has been culminated this year by the partnership with the Rosetrees Trust to fund world-class quality cancer research projects up to £50,000 per year for three years.

We have had four successful years of close links with the UK Oncology Forum annual meetings and established a new successful relationship with Oncology Professional Care (OPC) where we will provide free CPD accredited entry to OPC annual conference. In November 2022, we will be hosting our Annual Scientific Congress at The Law Society which will be facilitated by international Keynote speakers, workshops, as well as opportunities for trainees or others to present their work in surgical oncology of all cancer types to a broad audience. We encourage you to join us for this Multidisciplinary Meeting which will focus on the evolving role of surgical oncology.
BASO is also very proud to be one of the two founding bodies of the European Journal of Surgical Oncology (EJSO). This Journal is going from strength to strength under the leadership of Professor Audisio with its impact factor exceeding this year and seeing a steady rise in the number and quality of submissions. Subscription to the Journal is a benefit of BASO~ACS membership.

We are fortunate that all our members benefit from our ongoing close association with ESSO. Our trainees have access to all of the Trainee events of EYSAC (European Young Surgeons and Alumni Club), and BASO members benefit from member rates at all ESSO congresses and courses across Europe as well as all the networking and fellowship opportunities this linkage provides.
Finally we plan to increase our engagement with the national community of cancer surgeons across the UK, both in academic, teaching and district hospitals, by appointing regional representatives across the UK. We must never lose sight of the fact that the majority of cancers are dealt with by surgeons working in smaller hospitals and we intent that BASO~ACS will continue to support them in their work by providing first class continuing medical education, networking and professional support.

We hope you will continue to support us as we move forward!

Senior Lecturer and Consultant Surgeon

University Hospitals Southampton NHS FT