Congress Update Service, Issue for October 2011
`
`2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress: Spotlight on
`outstanding scientific programme
`
`What a success! 15,931 participants from 116 different countries attended an
`outstanding 33-track programme containing the latest developments in cancer
`research, treatment and care, compiled by 262 Scientific Committee
`members. 285 programme sessions hosted over 2,000 presentations from
`694 eminent experts containing their latest data, knowledge and experience. A
`record number of 34, late-breaking abstracts presented practice-changing
`data in four presidential sessions and 25 proffered paper sessions.
`
`And 363 journalists attended the congress, which provided a unique platform
`for all professionals with a common interest in oncology to discuss, debate
`and deliberate new data.
`
`Latest news: Webcasts are now available from the largest platform for
`practice-changing data in Europe. Visit our website for details on how to
`access the latest developments in oncology: www.ecco-org.eu.
`
`
`
`
`Fabrice Andre
`outlines his top
`three highlights
`from the scientific
`programme
`
`
`
`Johan Dikken,
`winner of the
`ECCO/EJC Young
`Investigators
`Award, shares his
`personal picks
`
`Therese Sorlie
`found all the
`basics readily
`available
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`
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`
`
`more >
`
`more >
`
`more >
`
`DID YOU KNOW?
`
`
`
`“Our dedicated efforts
`for the 2011 Stockholm
`Congress have
`gathered together some
`of the best new cancer
`research studies from
`all over the world,
`resulting in an
`impressively high
`number of quality
`abstracts containing
`practice-changing
`studies of new and
`significant scientific
`importance.”
`
`Michael Baumann,
`ECCO President and
`Congress Chair
`
`
`
`
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`
`
`ECCO16 - ESMO36 -
`ESTRO30 Secretariat
`
`Avenue E. Mounier 83
`B-1200 Brussels
`Belgium
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`Ex. 1073-0001
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`

`
`Fabrice Andre outlines his top three highlights from the
`scientific programme
`
`I enjoyed the Stockholm congress, as the scientific programme was in
`depth and covered multiple specialties. As a medical oncologist, I
`particularly appreciated the presidential sessions featuring late-breaking
`abstracts. These described the latest advances that will have an impact
`on daily clinical practice and provide some of the most important
`contributions for the development of knowledge and understanding in
`oncology. This is relevant to me, as I am focusing on breast cancer
`research, involving programmes devoted to new target identification and
`predictive biomarkers for treatment efficacy. I am also leading a
`randomised trial comparing standard chemotherapy to a genomic driven
`chemotherapy, and a clinical trial addressing the efficacy of high
`throughput technologies to drive patients into specific targeted agents.
`
` A
`
` highlight for me was the revelation that everolimus showed efficacy in
`patients with ER+/Her2- breast cancer. Two randomised trials showed the
`efficacy of everolimus, an mTORC1 inhibitor in patients pretreated with
`aromatase inhibitors. One of the two trials was a registration trial that
`included more than 700 patients (BOLERO 2 trial). This trial reported a
`hazard ratio at 0.42 for PFS. The second trial was an update of a phase II
`randomised trial. This second trial is consistent with BOLERO 2 and, most
`interestingly, the authors reported biomarker data in a number of cases,
`and suggested that activation of mTOR pathway was predictive for the
`efficacy of everolimus.
`
`Another area of interest to me is TDM1, an immunoconjugate binding
`trastuzumab and DM1, a cytotoxic agent. This drug has shown an
`improvement of PFS in comparison with trastuzumab.
`
`An additional high point was the report of several trials testing high
`throughput technologies for daily practice. Three oral presentations have
`shown the feasibility of next generation sequencing, CGH array and gene
`expression arrays for treatment decisions. Such approaches could
`become a standard of care in a near future given their reproducibility and
`robustness.
`
`Back to top >
`
`Johan Dikken, winner of the ECCO/EJC Young Investigators
`Award, shares his personal picks
`
`My main focus is on treatment of oesophageal and gastric cancer, and I
`am also interested in cancer-auditing and nationwide registrations. I
`found the following areas to have most relevance for me:
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`-
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`Presentation of the first results of the European colorectal cancer
`audit - EURECCA initiative by van den Broek et al. This study
`
`
`
`Tel: +32 2 775 02 01
`Fax: +32 2 775 02 00
`
`Email:
`stockholm11@ecco-
`org.eu
`
`www.ecco-org.eu
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`Ex. 1073-0002
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`showed large differences between countries regarding use of
`preoperative and postoperative chemo/radiotherapy across Europe.
`Hopefully this data will provide better ways to select patients for
`these therapies in the future;
`The session on oesophageal cancer outlining ways to improve
`outcome for patients was also significant for facilitating better patient
`management;
`I enjoyed the lecture by Dr Pahlman on Swedish Cancer registries
`showing that the introduction of registries for many different cancers
`in Sweden has greatly improved outcomes over the years. Setting
`up a registry aiming at complete coverage in a country can be very
`challenging but this lecture demonstrated that it is worth the effort -
`we can learn a lot from the Swedish model;
`The presentation of the MINDACT trial results (Rutgers et al.), as
`this trial has a unique design. Patients with breast cancer were risk
`stratified into low risk and high risk according to current guidelines
`and a 70-gene profile. When the guidelines and the gene profile
`showed conflicting results, patients were randomised for treatment
`with or without adjuvant chemotherapy according to either the
`guidelines, or the 70-gene profile;
`I also attended the FLIMS alumni workshop, intended for young
`researchers. The programme was highly educational and very useful
`for people at the beginning of their career.
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`In general, the congress programme provided a very broad spectrum of
`different topics covering all cancer subspecialties, offering something for
`everyone, irrespective of their field or interest. I also greatly appreciated
`the App provided by ECCO, as well as receiving the ECCO/EJC Young
`Investigators Award
`
`Back to top >>
`
`
`
`Therese Sorlie found all the basics readily available
`
`There were numerous interesting topics to satisfy a multidisciplinary field
`at the congress. As a scientist, I believe it is important to know about
`basic science in oncology, to understand the biology behind tumour
`development and progression in order to treat cancer the optimal way,
`particularly in this era of personalised medicine. This point of view was
`reflected in many of the presentations.
`
` I
`
` would like to share the three specific areas that I found particularly
`interesting and learned something about:
`
` I
`
` learned about the importance of other aspects of tumour growth such as
`changes in metabolism and microenvironment and how increased
`knowledge of these aspects may contribute to more specialised cancer
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`Ex. 1073-0003
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`therapeutics. This was emphasised in presentations by Tak Mak in the
`opening session on Saturday 24 September and M. Bissell and J.
`Pousyssegur in the scientific symposium on tumour microenvironment on
`Sunday 25th. It was also the focus of the debate on Sunday on whether or
`not epithelial-mesenchymal transition is essential for tumour progression.
`
` I
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` also discovered more about combination therapies, focusing on the
`benefit of combination of targeted treatment and broad targeting
`approaches, such as the addition of mTOR inhibitors to:
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`-
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`Tamoxifen in metastatic breast cancer (Sirolimus), late-breaking
`abstract by GS Bhattacharyya and colleagues;
`Exemestane in advanced breast cancer (Everolimus), late-breaking
`abstract by J Baselga and colleagues; and
`- PARP inhibitors in combination with cytotoxic treatments.
`
`The development of resistance to various treatment regimes is also an
`emerging problem and this was discussed by T Helleday on 26
`September on the problem of resistance developing in patients treated
`with PARP inhibitors, and by Fabrice Andre on the resistance to
`Trastuzumab and how to better select patients to receive mTOR
`inhibitors.
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`Another highlight involved tumour heterogeneity and the future of clinical
`trials. My take-home messages from this were:
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`The importance of characterising genomic aberrations in tumours to
`be able to target treatment more appropriately;
`What we can learn from the whole genome sequencing efforts (M
`Stratton, keynote lecture 25 September);
`The need to conduct trials in subgroups of patients based on
`stratification by molecular subtypes, for example, and by other
`molecular factors, which was the topic of the lecture for the ECCO
`clinical research award (Presidential session 26th September).
`
`
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