268 participants from 39 countries gathered in Bergamo, Italy from 15-17 May 2019 for the first EACR-ESMO Joint Conference on Liquid Biopsies, 2019, which was held at the historic Centro Congressi Giovannia XXIII in Lower Bergamo. The final night of the meeting saw a Conference Dinner held at the stunning Ristorante Taverna Valtellinese.
Part of the highly rated EACR Conferences, Liquid Biopsies was a great success, and 95% of participants rated the scientific quality of the content as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’. Participants also praised the conference’s organisation and opportunities to network in the field, whilst noting that the content will benefit their own research and fields.
As always with EACR Conferences, we aimed to foster interaction and discussion in an intimate atmosphere, with limited participant numbers. The Poster Spotlight and subsequent Poster Discussion Sessions proved very popular events for networking and discussions, with the volume of unpublished material greatly appreciated by the participants.
Organisers:
We were delighted to organise this conference in collaboration with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and look forward to collaborating with them again in Barcelona later this year at the ESMO 2019 Congress in Partnership with the EACR.
The Scientific Programme Committee consisted of two members from the EACR and two members from ESMO:
- Alberto Bardelli University of Torino, Italy (EACR co-chair)
- Carlos Caldas CRUK Cambridge Institute, United Kingdom (ESMO co-chair)
- Sarah-Jane Dawson Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia (ESMO representative)
- Caroline Dive CRUK Manchester Institute, United Kingdom (EACR representative)
Feedback from participants:
100% of participants would recommend the conference to others
96% of participants rated the management and administration of the conference by EACR staff as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’
“It was a much needed conference in the area of Liquid Biopsy. Fantastic meeting from experts in the field. Poster session was very intense with lots of discussion.”
“This was a fantastic conference. Very informative with excellent speakers but small enough that there were many good opportunities for networking and the chance to talk to speakers after the talks.”
“Interesting conference, great talks, nice location and many opportunities for researchers to get in touch with each other.”
“Liquid biopsy is definitely the future in the fight against cancer and I, as almost a doctoral student, am proud to be in the frontline in this battle. I am also happy to be a member of this very active EACR community.”
100% of Exhibitors said they would be likely or very likely to exhibit their company at future editions of the conference
Meeting Bursary Awards:
We were delighted to offer six EACR-Worldwide Cancer Research Bursary Awards to assist early-career members to attend the first edition of this conference. Our congratulations go to:
- Giulia Gallerani IRST Meldola, Italy
- Naveen Ramesh MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA
- Carolina Reduzzi Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Italy
- Romina Silva University College Dublin, Ireland
- Catarina Silveira GenoMed, Portugal
- Renata Varaljai University Hospital Essen, Germany
We would like to extend our gratitude to Worldwide Cancer Research for contributing to the bursaries to allow early-career researchers to attend. Read A Participant’s View: Liquid Biopsies 2019 here.
Poster Prize winners:
- Julian Hamfjord Institute for Cancer Research, Norway
- Shelize Khakoo The Royal Marsden Hospital, United Kingdom
- Cäcilia Köstler Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine, Germany
- Elisabetta Zulato Istituto Oncologico Veneto (IRCCS), Italy
Finally we would like to send a big congratulations to our four EACR Poster Prize winners who were awarded these prizes based on the scientific content and layout of their posters as well as their verbal discussion with the poster judges.
Facebook gallery:
A gallery of images from the conference is available on the EACR official Facebook page, which can be found here.
Future announcements
Be on the lookout for an announcement regarding the second edition of Liquid Biopsies, which will be held in 2020 or 2021!
