4th EMUC best abstract posters: UK study on bladder cancer tops selection

A British study on adjuvant chemotherapy for muscle invasive transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) won the first prize for the best unmoderated abstract posters presented at the 4th European Multidisciplinary Meeting on Urological Cancers (EMUC) held over the weekend in Barcelona, Spain.

S. Hafeez and R. Huddart of the Royal Marsden Hospital, Department of Academic Radiotherapy, Surrey, Surrey (GB) received the first prize for their study titled “Outcomes of selective bladder preservation with neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in muscle invasive transitional cell carcinoma (TCC)” (Abstract # P013).

The jury, according to Prof. Bertrand Tombal (BE) who formally handed the prizes yesterday, commended the high quality of submissions and was locked in debate over some of the selection, which led to the awarding of two second prizes.

Winning the second prize were two groups, one a joint Israel-US study and the other also a joint Russian-American research group.

D. Keizman and colleagues of the Meir Medical Center, Institute of Oncology in Kfar Saba, Israel and several other Israeli and US institutes including the Johns Hopkins in Baltimore won one of the second prizes with their research (Abstract # P036) titled “Bisphosphonates (Bis) combined with sunitinib (Su) may improve the response rate (RR), progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients (pts) with bone metastases (mets) from renal cell carcinoma (RCC).”

Co-awarded for the same prize were M. Cotreau and colleagues of the N.N. Blokhin Cancer Research Center, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow, Russia and several US research institutes such as the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, QPharmetra, AVEO Oncology and the Texas Oncology-Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center in Dallas. The group won for their study “Tivozanib pharmacokinetic (PK)/pharmacodynamic (PD) analysis of blood pressure (BP) and soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (sVEGFR2) in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC),” (Abstract # P040).

Another research work on bladder cancer bagged the third prize. A. Figueroa and colleagues from the Instituto De Investigación Biomédica A Coruña (INIBIC) Complejo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña, Translational Cancer Research Group in A Coruña, Spain, won for their work on the “Effect of vinflunine on epithelial-mesenchymal transition in human bladder cancer cell lines” (Abstract # P001).

A total of 174 abstracts were submitted to the 4th EMUC with many of the contributions coming from Spain, Italy, Russia, the UK and the Netherlands. Next year the 5th EMUC will be held in Marseille, France, the second time the event will be held annually since it started as a biennial meeting in 2007.