The 24^th Annual Congress of the European Association of Urology (EAU) will be held from 17 to 21 March 2009 in the Stockholm International Fairs (SE). The EAU aims to present the best of scientific results, lectures and educational courses; the scientific programme covers the whole range of the urological field. Chairman of the EAU Scientific Congress Office Professor Freddie Hamdy has identified several scientific highlights.

In Stockholm the EAU expects to welcome an estimated 10,000 delegates and 3,000 exhibitors. According to Professor Hamdy highlights include, among other things, the State-of-the-art lecture ‘Watchful waiting versus radical prostatectomy - an updated from the SPCG-4 trial' by Professor Lars Holmberg from Uppsala (SE), held from 8:15 to 8:35 hours on Friday, 20 March. “In 2005 the researchers reported that radical prostatectomy improved prostate cancer survival compared with watchful waiting after a median of 8.2 years of follow-up. Now results after 3 more years of follow-up are reported”, he says.

The lecture ‘The PCA3 test in the diagnosis of prostate cancer’ by Dr. Monique Roobol from Rotterdam (NL) – Friday 20 March from 9:20 to 9:35 hours – gives an overview of the value of the Prostate Cancer Antigen 3 (PCA3) test for clinical applications based on the available literature and new data. The serum PSA value is the most commonly used marker in the detection and monitoring of prostate cancer, but prostate cancer is present throughout the entire PSA spectrum; this was confirmed by the biopsy results in men randomised to the control arm of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT). Developments in molecular biology techniques have led to the identification of numerous genes and proteins that are believed to be relevant for the development of prostate cancer. This has resulted in a commercially available gene-based test, the PCA3 test.

On the same day, from 10:05 to 10:25 hours, Dr. Martin Gleave will give the Société Internationale d’Urologie lecture ‘Castration resistant prostate cancer: New therapeutic approaches’. Advanced prostate cancer has high initial response rates to androgen ablation. However, remissions are temporary because surviving tumour cells usually progress to castrate-refractory prostate cancer. Dr. Gleave will be discussing the status of several novel agents in clinical trials either as single agents or in combination with cytotoxic chemotherapy, including the androgen receptor, endothelin receptor, and molecular chaperones.

Dr. Smith from Boston (U.S.) is keen on presenting the exciting results of his trial (A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of denosumab in men receiving androgen deprivation therapy for non-metastatic prostate cancer) from 10:25 to 10:55 hours as part of the ‘The best EAU papers’ session.

According to Dr. Johann de Bono from London (UK), who will be presenting ‘New approaches to target androgen receptors in prostate cancer’ from 11:45 to 12:00 hours, there is now incontrovertible evidence that what we have previously defined as hormone refractory prostate cancer is a disease that remains steroid hormone drive. Clinical evidence is now available that novel agents targeting androgen synthesis and more potent androgen receptor antagonists have significant antitumor activity. He will be reporting about trials with these novel agents.

On Saturday, 21 March, Professor Fritz Schröder from Rotterdam (NL) will be giving an important update on the European Randomised Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) from 11:15 to 11:35 hours. The ERSPC is a large European study involving 8 countries (Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands). This presentation will, for the first time, summarise results obtained by all centres.

More information about the new initiative ‘EAU TV’, the Meet-the-Expert sessions and the EAU Press Conference – which will be opened by Swedish TV host and producer Mr Hasse Aro - will follow shortly.
Please register online before 27 February on www.eaustockholm2009.org (registration is free for media representatives). For more information, please contact Ms Lindy Brouwer, l.brouwer@uroweb.org.