Romania hosts 11th CEM in Timisoara

The Central European Meeting (CEM), the longest-running regional event annually organised by the European Association of Urology’s (EAU) Regional Office, will open its 11th conference today with around 350 participants expected to gather in Timisoara, Romania’s university city."The CEM, as an important annual urology meeting, annually attracts some of the best and most innovative research studies done in the region. We are certainly privileged to host this event not only to bring attention to young researchers here but also to highlight the state of urology in this part of Europe," said Prof. Viorel Bucuras, chairman of the 11th CEM.

Bucuras said organisers have prepared a scientific programme that will cover current and key issues in urology. During the one and a half-day event, three plenary sessions, lectures, panel discussions and poster sessions will be held to examine issues in prostate, penile, bladder and kidney cancers, paediatrics, female urology and stones, among other topics.

This year around 226 abstracts were submitted coming from 19 countries, with 176 screened and finally accepted for presentations in nine poster sessions during the meeting. Bucuras said the abstracts reviewers were happy to note innovative studies in various topics such as reconstructive urology, urothelial cancer, stones and prostate cancer, to name a few.

Host country Romania and Poland topped the abstract submissions this year with 52 and 51 accepted abstracts, respectively. Urologists from the Czech Republic came third with 22 accepted abstracts. Other accepted submissions came from outside the region such as Iran, the UK, Portugal and Switzerland.

Six cash awards from sponsors Karl Storz and Richard Wolf will be granted to the top six presented abstract studies selected by the CEM jurors. In 2010 submissions from Austria and Poland came ahead in the abstract-poster race.

All accepted abstracts in both the CEM and the recently concluded South Eastern European Meeting (SEEM) were published in the European Urology Supplements October edition as a handy reference and in line with the Regional Office’s aim to highlight the research achievements in the region.

Prof. Michael Marberger, chairman of the EAU Regional Office, said the annual regional meetings provide not only a venue for emerging talents across Europe but also show the breadth and depth of the current work by some of the region’s most prolific young researchers and urologists.

The CEM, which annually attracts the highest number of participants in the annual EAU regional meetings, has been continuously held since 2001 with Budapest and Bratislava both hosting the event twice. Other hosts cities in previous years were Krakow, Bucharest, Prague, Zagreb, Warsaw and Ljubljana.