PelvEx 2024

PelvEx 2024 was hosted and organized in London by the ACPGBI Advanced Malignancy Subcommittee and UKPEN. The Royal Institution provided the perfect venue, blending history with excellent facilities which ensured the meeting was a tremendous success. Nearly 300 delegates attended from all over the world, with this year’s meeting having a truly multi-disciplinary programme.

The first day included sessions on “R0 resection – How important is it really”, “How much is too much in exenteration surgery”, and “Mastering morbidity”. In addition, sessions on the “Consequences of exenteration surgery” including patient and nursing experiences, as well as discussion about sex and intimacy, and the psychological consequences of surgery. The day finished with a “Consultants Corner- Grey Heads on Green Shoulders” session discussing a number of diverse challenges encountered at different stages in clinical practice .

The second day began with the inaugural trainee prize presentation session for the now coveted Brunschwig Prize. A number of high quality abstracts were received and the six best (linked below this blog) were invited to deliver oral presentations. The quality was exceptional. This session was followed by sessions on “Research progress” and “Surgical techniques”, followed by an afternoon where the “Oncologists have their say” culminating with a “Global MDT”. The conference was live streamed to China and recorded for posterity. 

The conference ended with words of thanks from Elaine Burns, Ian Jenkins and Des Winter, who also awarded the Brunschwig Prize to Miriam Khalil for her talk entitled “The impact of high complexity total pelvic exenteration on surgeon fatigue: The FaME Study”. Congratulations Miriam! 

As always the meeting was a very social affair, and provided a great opportunity to engage with colleagues old and new from around the world. With everybody back to work, all that is left now is for us to eagerly await PelvEx 2025 in Sydney!