10th Annual EuCC Symposium
Clinical and Experimental Oncology
Friday, May 16, 2003

Jesuitenschloss Merzhausen near Freiburg

09:00 - 9.30 h Registration and Refreshments
09:30

Introduction (H. Veelken)

  • Welcome Address by Prof. Pollack, Prorektor of Medicine, Freiburg University
  • Welcome Address by Prof. Schumacher, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Freiburg University
09:45 Award of the Paul Basset Medal
SESSION I: Basic Science in Oncology: From Yeast to Man
(Chairmen: C. Peters, C. Moroni)
10:00 R. Waesch, Freiburg:
"Anaphase promoting complex (APC)-dependent cyclin proteolysis and genetic instability"

10:20

M. Schmidlin, Basel:
"PKB/Akt regulates cytokine mRNA turnover via the RNA binding protein BRF1"
10:40 K.L. Andarawewa, Strasbourg:
"Dual stromelysin-3 function during natural mouse
MMTV-ras tumor progression
11:00 Coffee break
11:20 T. Reinheckel, Freiburg:
"Lysosomal peptidases in tumor progression and metastasis: evidence from tumor mouse models"
11.40 A. Faisal, Basel:
"Non-redundant role of ShcA in cytoskeletal reorganization (CSR)-induced ERK activation""
12:00 M. Kolanczyk, Freiburg:
"Evidence that E2A-PBX controls multiple leukemia phenotypes through different target genes"
SESSION II: Predictive Molecular Markers
(Chairmen: R. Herrmann, J.P. Bergerat)
12:20 A. Badache, Basel:
"Memo, a novel mediator of neu/erb-b2-dependent breast cancer cell motility"
12:40 M. Beau-Faller, Strasbourg:
"Allelic imbalance at loci containing fgfr, fgf, c-met and hgf candidate genes in
non-small cell lung cancer sub-types? Implication for progression"
13.00 Lunch
Parallel: Business Meeting
14.30 M. Löbler, Freiburg:
"Expression of connexin 26 in cancerous pancreas"
14.50 M. Buess, Basel:
"STRAP is a predictive marker for 5-FU based chemotherapy in early colorectal cancer"
15:10 J. Céraline, Strasbourg:
"Constitutively active androgen receptor variant detected in a human prostate cancer"
15:30 M. Bolli, Basel:
"Tissue microarrays reveal the prognostic significance of MAGE tumor antigen expression"
15:50 Coffee break
SESSION III: Innovative Therapeutic Approaches
(Chairmen: P. Dufour, R. Mertelsmann)
16:10 H. Pircher, Freiburg:
"How do cytotoxic T cells kill tumor cells in vivo?"
16:30 C. Kalberer, Basel:
"Anti-tumor activity of human NK cells generated in NOD/SCID mice from cord blood CD34+ progenitor cells"
16.50 A. Spyridonidis, Freiburg:
"Epithelial tissue chimerism after human hematopoietic cell transplantation is a real phenomenon not caused by fusion"
17:10 F. Forrer, Basel:
"Radioimmunotherapy with Lutetium-11-DOTA-Rituximab: A phase I/II-study in patients with follicular and mantle cell lymphoma. An interim analysis"
17:30 M. Schmidt, Freiburg:
"In vivo monitoring of transduced cells in clinical gene transfer studies"
17:50 Paul Basset Award (500 €) for the best presentation by a young scientist
(<35 years) and Concluding Remarks
(R. Mertelsmann)
18.00 Meeting adjourns


10th Annual EuCC Symposium "Clinical and Experimental Oncology" May, 16, 2003
Welcome Address Vice-Rector Pollak

Dear Dean of the Medical Faculty,
Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,
On behalf of the Albert Ludwig University I may welcome you all very cordially. It is a particular pleasure for me and there are, of course, reasons for this pleasure:
First: It is an honour for our university to host the 10th European Cancer Center Symposium on "Clinical and Experimental Oncology" to which more than eighty participants have come. We are glad to have the jubilee symposium here near Freiburg where in 1994 the first meeting took place.
Second: As Vice-Rector for research and medical affairs and as a member of our Faculty of Medicine it is so to speak a home match for me although my own field of work, forensic medicine, is somewhat different from yours.
Third: There is something special about the EuCC. It is not just an institution as there are so many others with its own staff and a regular budget. No, in terms of organization the EuCC still is what it was right at its beginning: a multicentre trinational and interdisciplinary initiative of the clinical departments of hematology and oncology of the universities of Strasbourg, Basel and Freiburg and the corresponding basic cancer research units of these institutions with the goals

  • to exchange information and scientific know-how,
  • to improve and intensify the co-operation between clinical centres and basic research institutions as well as between universities and the pharmaceutical industry, and
  • to initiate collaborative projects in research and teaching.

With regard to the scientific cooperation in the Upper Rhine Valley it was a pretty early point of time, when - based on an initiative by Professor Obrecht, Basel, and Professor Mertelsmann, Freiburg - the EuCC was founded in July 1992 in Freiburg. In this context I should also mention the names of Professor Herrmann from Basel and Professors Dufour and Bergerat from Strasbourg as the other foundation members.
At that time EUCOR, our European Confederation of Universities of the Upper Rhine, had existed only for three years - that emphazises how early the scientists of the cancer research institutions of Basel, Strasbourg and Freiburg organized their co-operation.
The EuCC is - the past ten years showed this clearly - an informal but very active and efficient platform of scientific exchange which exists without a normal regular budget. Its success is based on the initiative of the scientists and the staff of the collaborating institutions and the Tumor Center Freiburg and the Department of Gastroenterology of the University Hospital of Freiburg as associated members. They all learned very early that inter-institutional co-operation and exchange of knowledge is vital and that here in the Upper Rhine Valley are very favorable preconditions for that due to a number of universities with great experience and potentials at a very close distance.

That such an informal institution as the EuCC now holds already its 10th conference is clear evidence of dynamic and strength. The fact that you now have created a particular award for outstanding contributions to the advancement of the EuCC, which will be conferred just afterwards, emphazises this fact, but also shows that the existence of the EuCC, is considered not only as a necessity, but meanwhile also as self-evident.

There is a considerable amount of co-operation between institutions of the universities of the Upper Rhine; but I frankly say that the EuCC is among the most active and the most successful.
And let me also say that, a few years ago, the EuCC began a remarkable tradition by creating a particular annual award for the best presentation by a junior scientist during the EuCC symposium.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me take the location where the EuCC symposium of this year takes place as a symbol: You are meeting at a beautiful site just outside Freiburg where the EuCC was founded, some kilometres on the way to Basel and situated on the northern slopes of the Schönberg so that we can also look in the direction of Strasbourg.
Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you all an interesting and fruitful symposium and a pleasant stay here just outside the capital of the Black Forest.

Presentation of the P. Basset Medal at the
10th EuCC Symposium
From left to right: C. Peters (Freiburg), R. Mertelsmann (Freiburg), P. Basset Laureate J.P. Obrecht (Basel), J.P. Bergerat (Strasbourg), C. Moroni (Basel).

Participants of the 10th EuCC Symposium at the
Jesuitenschloss, Merzhausen near Freiburg.
 

Presentation of the P. Basset Award at the
10th EuCC Symposium
Left: R. Mertelsmann, Freiburg. Right: M. Buess (Basel), winner of the
P. Basset Award.