The Division of Cancer Prevention of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Office of Disease Prevention of the National Institutes of Health co-sponsored the Translational Advances in Cancer Prevention Agent Development Meeting on August 27 to 28, 2020. The goals of this meeting were to foster the exchange of ideas and stimulate new collaborative interactions among leading cancer prevention researchers from basic and clinical research; highlight new and emerging trends in immunoprevention and chemoprevention as well as new information from clinical trials; and provide information to the extramural research community on the significant resources available from the NCI to promote prevention agent development and rapid translation to clinical trials. The meeting included two plenary talks and five sessions covering the range from pre-clinical studies with chemo/immunopreventive agents to ongoing cancer prevention clinical trials. In addition, two NCI informational sessions describing contract resources for the preclinical agent development and cooperative grants for the Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network were also presented.

The Division of Cancer Prevention of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Office of Disease Prevention of the National Institutes of Health co-sponsored the Translational Advances in Cancer Prevention Agent Development Meeting on August 27 to 28, 2020. The goals of this meeting were to foster the exchange of ideas and stimulate new collaborative interactions among leading cancer prevention researchers from basic and clinical research; highlight new and emerging trends in immunoprevention and chemoprevention as well as new information from clinical trials; and provide information to the extramural research community on the significant resources available from the NCI to promote prevention agent development and rapid translation to clinical trials. The meeting included two plenary talks and five sessions covering the range from pre-clinical studies with chemo/immunopreventive agents to ongoing cancer prevention clinical trials. In addition, two NCI informational sessions describing contract resources for the preclinical agent development and cooperative grants for the Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network were also presented.

Esophageal achalasia is a primary motility disorder characterized by insufficient lower esophageal sphincter relaxation and loss of esophageal peristalsis. Achalasia is a chronic disease that causes progressive irreversible loss of esophageal motor function. The recent development of high-resolution manometry has facilitated the diagnosis of achalasia, and determining the achalasia subtypes based on high-resolution manometry can be important when deciding on treatment methods. Peroral endoscopic myotomy is less invasive than surgery with comparable efficacy. The present guidelines (the “2019 Seoul Consensus on Esophageal Achalasia Guidelines”) were developed based on evidence-based medicine; the Asian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association and Korean Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility served as the operating and development committees, respectively. The development of the guidelines began in June 2018, and a draft consensus based on the Delphi process was achieved in April 2019. The guidelines consist of 18 recommendations: 2 pertaining to the definition and epidemiology of achalasia, 6 pertaining to diagnoses, and 10 pertaining to treatments. The endoscopic treatment section is based on the latest evidence from meta-analyses. Clinicians (including gastroenterologists, upper gastrointestinal tract surgeons, general physicians, nurses, and other hospital workers) and patients could use these guidelines to make an informed decision on the management of achalasia.