10th CEM: studies from Austria, Poland top abstracts awards

October 2010- New studies in bladder and prostate cancer conducted by researchers in Austria and Poland won the top prizes at the recently concluded 10th Central European Meeting held over the weekend in Bratislava, Slovakia.

"We could have given 30 prizes this year, such is the quality of the submissions. Those we finally selected are excellent and original in their approach and insights," said Professors Michael Marberger and Jan Breza who handed out the prizes to the six winners.

S. Polster-Wildhofen and colleagues of Vienna, Austria won the first prize from Karl Storz for their study titled "Lectin-mediated drug delivery for intravesical treatment of bladder cancer." Receiving the equivalent prize from sponsor Richard Wolf were J. Panas and colleagues from Krakow, Poland for their study on "Transrectal prostate biopsy efficiency in own method of reconstruction MRI prostate imaging into sonographical one." The two studies bested 177 other submissions for the top prizes.The six winning abstracts will also be displayed during the five-day Annual EAU Congress in Vienna from March 18-22, 2011. All six winners received a total cash prize of �5,000 from the sponsors.

Below are the second and third prize winners: Karl Storz: 2nd Prize- J. Hrbacek, et al., "Men with benign prostate hyperplasia have higher plasma antibody levels against cytomegalovirus and human papillomavirus 18 than prostate cancer patients," (Prague, Czech Republic) 3rd Prize- J. Svihra, et al., "Measuring barriers among patients with urinary incontinence," (Bratislava, Slovakia) Richard Wolf: 2nd Prize- A. Horvath, et al., "Novel intravesical therapy for non muscle invasive bladder cancer using a genetically modified oncolytic herpes simplex virus," (Hungary, USA, UK) 3rd Prize- T. Kulis, et al., "Postchemotherapy laparoscopic retroperitoneal lymph node dissection," (Zagreb, Croatia)

A colleague (right) of J. Panas received the Richard Wolf first prize for best abstract on her behalf.Looking on are (from left) Prof. Jan Breza, Prof. Michael Marberger and Ronald Ligterink of Congress Consultants