CEM15: Genetic research on prostate and kidney cancers wins award

A presentation on new genetic perspectives in prostate and renal cancer which describes emerging research data on the role of genetics in disease progression and diagnostics has won the top prize in the Young Urologists Competition at the 15th Central European Meeting held over the weekend in Budapest, Hungary.

“It is inspiring to see the great work being done by young urologists from Central Europe and we hope to see more quality work in the coming years. This year’s winners have shown the potentials of young urologists and we will continue to offer them the platform and opportunities,” said EAU Regional Office Chairman Bob Djavan.

George Daniel Radavoi from Bucharest, Romania won with his presentation regarding new work done on biomarkers for prostate cancer (PCa) and renal cell carcinoma and the involvement of research teams based in Romania. He described the current status of various projects and how they fit or complement international research efforts in other European countries.

He mentioned that Romanian patient populations provided opportunites to study inherited risk genetic variants in PCa since the over-diagnosis of indolent forms is not yet a major problem. Romanian researchers are also active in developing genetic profiling used for kidney cancer research.

EAU Secretary General Prof. Chris Chapple, together with local organisers Profs. Péter Tenke and Peter Nyiràdy, handed the awards to Radavoi and Boris Kollarik (Bratislava, Slovakia) and Uros Bele (Maribor, Slovenia), second and third prize winners, respectively.

“Innovative work and solutions to the challenges we face in every day clinical practice are important contributions to achieving optimal healthcare. Our speciality will certainly benefit from consistent, quality work from young urologists,” said Chapple.

Kollarik won the runner-up prize for his presentation on the role of neoadjuvant chemotherpy in treating muscle invasive bladder cancer using literature review, while Bele bagged the third prize for describing the endoscopic treatment of vesicoureteral reflux in children done in a Slovenian hospital and how his team compared two different bulking agents.

The 11-member jury considered innovation, insights, quality of data and methodology, among other criteria, in selecting the winners. Six candidates participated including contestants from Hungary, Czech Republic and Croatia.