Welcome Message

Tsuyoshi Saito, M.D.

Tsuyoshi Saito, M.D.

President, the 59th Annual Spring Meeting of the Japanese Society of Clinical Cytology

Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,

Sapporo Medical University, Japan

I am honored to take on the role of President of the 59th Annual Spring Meeting in 2018. I joined the Japanese Society of Clinical Cytology (JSCC) after graduating from Sapporo Medical University in 1986, becoming a board-certified supervisory cytologist in 1993 thanks to guidance from my senior colleagues, and have continued to be active in the JSCC until today. What I have come to feel about the JSCC through these activities is a sense of crisis that clinicians may be feeling increasingly distant from both the JSCC and cytological diagnosis. I feel a vague sense of crisis because HPV tests and other new technologies other than cytology are being developed for early cancer diagnosis, and my impression is that the relative importance of cytology in the field of obstetrics and gynecology in which I myself work is diminishing. I believe that it is the task of the JSCC to overcome this. The popularization of next-generation sequencers has simplified exhaustive genetic analysis. I believe it is important for the JSCC to take the initiative in proposing cytological diagnoses incorporating such novel techniques, and have therefore chosen “The integration of cytology and new technologies as a method of early cancer diagnosis” as the conference theme. This will require an in-depth knowledge of cytology on the part of every person who uses cytological diagnosis. I hope this conference will be an opportunity for young clinicians and laboratory technicians to develop an interest in cytology, and for specialists to update their knowledge.

The last time this conference was held in Sapporo was 20 years ago in 1998, under the presidency of Professor Emeritus Ryuichi Kudo of my department. All the members of my own department and of the Hokkaido Society of Clinical Cytology are very much looking forward to the conference. June in Hokkaido is its best season, with the sudden arrival of summer after the long winter has ended. The conference venues are the Sapporo Geibunkan and the Royton Sapporo hotel in the city center. I hope to see as many members as possible there.

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