Dear colleague,

It is a pleasure to announce the 5th Biannual Peritoneal Surface Oncology Workshop that will be held in Milan, Italy, from December 4th to 6th 2006 entitled: "Integrating Cytoreductive Surgery and Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy into the management of Peritoneal Malignancies: a Consensus Meeting".

Following the same policy of the last meeting held in Madrid in December 2004, the Peritoneal Surface Oncology Group International (PSOGI) will continue to share strategies, experiences, tactics and best practices to reach a consensus pertaining to several conceptual and technical aspects regarding the treatment of peritoneal surface malignancies (PSM). In this sense, we are aiming to bring together a broad expertise to generate new hypothesis, accumulate theoretical and practical resources and explore how to build an international network for the design of future prospective controlled studies. Surgeons, medical oncologists, radiologists, anaesthesiologists, biologists, nutrition specialists, pathologists, nurses, pharmacologists and statisticians will be involved in this process.

With this aim, a scientific discussion will be conducted during the whole year of 2006. before the meeting itself and it will be conducted with the precious help of an International Scientific Committee (ISC) that will guide the scientific activities of the International Working Groups (IWG) set up for the maturation and establishment of concepts related to specific issues regarding the management of PSM.