Mario Dicato, Hematology-Oncology Service at Luxembourg Medical Center, Luxembourg, and Head of the Research Laboratory of the Luxembourg Foundation for Research on Cancer and Blood Disorders. M. Dicato trained at Lausanne University, completed his postgraduate training at the Universities of Geneva, Switzerland, Pittsburgh and Yale, USA. He did his fellowship (subspecialty training) in hematology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston and was Clinical and Research Fellow in Medicine at Harvard University, Boston, USA. Karin Haustermans is Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Leuven Cancer Institute of the University Hospital Gasthuisberg (Belgium) and a Full Professor at the KU Leuven. She is specialized in GI and GU oncology and has a part time research appointment as a Fundamental, Clinical Researcher that is sponsored by the Research Foundation – Flanders. She is also a member of several (inter)national scientific organizations. From 2006 to 2009 she held the Chair of the EORTC Radiation Oncology Group and from 2009 until 2015 she was Chair of the Quality Assurance Committee of EORTC. She is also heavily involved in the Belgian Cancer Registry as a member of the board and Chair of the Coordination Council. She is member of the scientific board of OncoRay Dresden and Helmholtz- Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (operational proton facility) and member of the scientific advisory committee of CERN (Geneva). In 2009 she was awarded the ESTRO Breur medal in recognition of her major contribution to European Radiotherapy. From 2011 onwards she was elected as a member of the Royal Academy of Medicine and in 2015 she was elected as a fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences. Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD, is full professor and Head of the division of Digestive Oncology at University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium (KUL) and University Hospitals Leuven. He became in 2018 doctor honoris causa of the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland. He is member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine and president of the Belgian Foundation against Cancer and received in 2019 the ESMO Award. His research focuses on the development of new treatment strategies for GI cancers, including drug development and the identification of molecular markers and diagnostic tools. He has published more than 560 peer-reviewed articles, leading to more than 68500 citations and an H-Factor of 118. In 2013, Capital magazine ranked Prof Van Cutsem in the top three reputed colon cancer experts globally. Thomson Reuters ranks him in the top 1% for impact in his domain. He co-founded the ESMO GI/World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, and is Chair of the meeting in Barcelona, Spain. He serves/served on the board or key committee of several international societies, including ESMO, ASCO, ENET, EORTC, ECCO, ESDO and of the patient advocacy groups, Europacolon and Digestive Cancers Europe
