Recipient: Professor Keiichi Maruyama

About the Award: The ESSO Medal is presented to Professor Keiichi Maruyama in recognition of his continuous efforts towards the improvement of outcomes for gastric patients worldwide through research on individualised care, teaching and training of numerous surgeons worldwide.

Professor Keiichi Maruyama was Head of the Department of Surgical Oncology at the National Cancer Center in Tokyo from 1972 to 2002, and thereafter Professor of Surgery at Sanno Hospital in Tokyo.

He was Founder and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Gastric Cancer and President of the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association. He received many national prizes and a ‘Knight’s Cross Order of Merit’ from Hungary, and an Honorary Membership of most European Surgical Societies.

Prof. Maruyama advanced international collaboration, focusing on gastric cancer through the WHO Collaborating Center. He personally organised a database for tailor-made surgical treatment (the Maruyama Index) and published literature overviews on gastric cancer.

Through Prof. Maruyama numeroussurgeons throughout the world, many from Europe, were trained at the National Cancer Centre Hospital in D2 and D3 dissection and organised through a foundation also. This made it possible to start the D1 D2 trial with Prof. Sasako as an instructor surgeon and collaboration with Prof. Moriya in rectal cancer surgery at a later stage.

Maruyama was the Founder of the World Congress of Gastric Cancer Surgery and Editor of Gastric Cancer.
Through his continuous efforts in teaching, instructing and kind interaction with many surgeons worldwide he has improved outcomes of many gastric cancer patients all over the world.