Welcome to the 24th European Conference on General Thoracic Surgery

Dear Colleagues, Guests and Friends

When they come to the South of Italy, foreigners are saddened twice – when they arrive and when they leave. This quote from a recent Italian movie gives an inspired picture of the magic that pervades each visit to Naples. Indeed, there are only a few other places in the world where Nature and History blend in such a unique, fascinating mix. A mix of cultures, flavors, colors – a bit like the ESTS.  And, like Naples with its ever increasing population of tourists, ESTS is ready to welcome in the City its ever increasing Membership that makes this organization the largest pure Thoracic Surgical Society worldwide.

Our delegates will be overwhelmed by eruptive personality of the good-natured Neapolitans and the mitigated climate of the Mediterranean Spring which attracted the Greek settlements when Naples was known as Parthenope. 

Naples - a place with a different pace, a different philosophy of life, enchanting like the blue ocean along Castel dell’Ovo, or intriguing like the multiflavored cuisine served in a multitude of restaurants and pizzerias.

The ESTS Leadership and the Local Organizing Committee are excited at the idea to offer the combination of absolute scientific value with a hopefully unsurpassable social program.  We are committed to make the 2016 ESTS Annual meeting a memorable one so that delegates will look back with a smile and think: Only in Naples.

Gaetano Rocco

Chair Local Organising Committee