The Cholangiocarcinoma Conference is the first of its kind solely focused on detailing current advances, critical challenges, and future directions of basic, translational, and clinical cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) research at Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa 41000 Bob Hope Drive Palm Springs, CA 92270 USA. It will bring together an international community of senior and early-career investigators to address important areas of current and evolving basic, translational, and clinical research focused on the critical challenges to significant improvements in CCA clinical management and patient survival outcomes. It also aims to recruit early career researchers and underrepresented scientists to the CCA research community and encourage networking with international CCA research consortiums and patient advocacy organizations. 

The program is designed to provide a collegial and collaborative environment that supports the sharing of new ideas, fosters early career investigator development, and promotes scientific cross-talk between different disciplines. 

Key topic areas that will be addressed include: 1) Challenges of inter- and intratumor heterogeneity; 2) Roles of the microbiome and tumor microenvironment in affecting disease progression, therapeutic resistance, and immunosurveillance; 3) Cellular origins, lineage, and genomic relationships between CCA and hepatocellular carcinoma; 4) Identification of novel and more effective biomarker signatures for early CCA detection and for monitoring prognosis and treatments; 5) Advances in "omics" for personalizing therapies; 7) Innovative preclinical modeling for CCA drug discovery; 7) Current and emerging trends in CCA personalized medicine; 8) New technologies and approaches for CCA therapies.

Conference sessions will present the latest research and promote discussion on:

• Rising clinical importance of cholangiocarcinoma

• Genomics, epigenomics, and inter- and intratumor heterogeneity

• Tumor microenvironment and cancer metabolism in cholangiocarcinoma pathogenesis and as potential therapeutic targets

• Role of microbiome in genesis and progression of cholangiocarcinoma

• Molecular insights into the origins of cholangiocarcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and mixed hepatocarcinoma-cholangiocarcinoma

• Translational advances and their clinical potential in predicting cholangiocarcinoma diagnosis and prognosis advances in management of cholangiocarcinoma

• Preclinical modeling of human cholangiocarcinoma for drug studies and drug discovery

• Innovative approaches for cholangiocarcinoma therapies

This conference covers eight sessions 16 abstract presentations, two poster sessions, and two "Meet the Expert" sessions for trainees and junior faculty to meet experts in the field and receive career and scientific advice.

 An interactive Career Development Workshop will offer strategies for obtaining and sustaining intra- and extramural research funding, publishing in high impact scientific/biomedical journals, and establishing an independent research lab.

Also featured is a special session specifically devoted to mentoring underrepresented investigators, and a workshop designed to promote cholangiocarcinoma patient advocacy and worldwide consortium research initiatives.

Please visit the link to learn more about the conference: Home - The Cholangiocarcinoma Conference: Molecular Drivers, Microenvironment and Precision Medicine (cvent.com)