22 April 2010 -- The 25th Anniversary EAU Congress ended in Barcelona on Tuesday with EAU Secretary General Per-Anders Abrahamsson underscoring the support, interest and commitment shown by all participants, exhibitors and speakers, which made the anniversary meeting "one of the most memorable in the EAU's congress history."
Despite the shadow of cancelled flights in Northern Europe due to the vulcanic eruption in Iceland which prevented a number of congress participants from travelling to Spain, the five-day congress proceeded with an adjusted programme.
Participants from Asia and the Middle East made a strong showing since incoming flights from the region were unaffected. Speakers and lecturers from Northern Europe and the US, which formed about a third of the invited lecturers, however, were affected starting Thursday night 15 April when flights were cancelled due to the spreading ash cloud.
But Abrahamsson said the willingness and cooperation of many participants to cover-up for their absent colleagues was remarkable.
Awards for the best abstracts were also given in the concluding session with research work from Switzerland, Japan, Sweden and the United States leading the 1,104 abstracts selected for final presentations.
Winning the first prize in the oncology category was a Swiss study led by B. Özdemir who presented a summary of the results in the concluding session of the congress. Özdemir and colleagues studied stroma reaction in mouse xenograft models of prostate cancer bone metastasis.
Receiving an equivalent prize in non-oncology were H. Yokoyama and colleagues for their research on the effects of encephalin gene therapy using herpes simplex virus vector on bladder hyperactivity. Aside from the certificates both winners received cash prizes.
M.J.J. Hemelrijck and colleagues bagged the second prize in oncology with their work titled "Prostate cancer risk in the Swedish AMORIS study: The interplay between triglycerides, total cholesterol, and glucose." The third prize for best abstract in non-oncology went to M. Valerio and colleagues for their study assessing the functionality and safety of a modular artificial sphincter.