CONGRESS NEWS

The continuously evolving treatment landscape in renal cell carcinoma

As a result of intensive fundamental and clinical research the treatment of localized and advanced renal cell carcinoma is constantly changing and improving. At the 2018 annual BMUC meeting, Prof. Viktor Grünwald gave an overview of the recent findings in clinical research and of the approaches that are expected to change the management of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in the future.

Highlights of Scientific Summits Meeting

Summary

Since last year a board of respectively three urologists and one radiation oncologist created the ‘Scientific Summits’. This is a scientifically independent Belgian congress for urologists, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists and radiologists with special interest in urology and more specifically in urologic oncology. The aim of Scientific Summits is providing up-to-date scientific information based on the highlights of the most recent international congresses. The 4^th edition took place in the charming city of Durbuy, Belgium.

The first day of the meeting focussed on the treatment and prevention of side effects of various anticancer treatments in urologic oncology. Experts in the field shared practical tips and tricks, based on interactive case discussions. They illustrated difficult situations and how to deal with them. On the second day of the meeting, interactive state-of-the-art lectures provided us with up-to-date information on how to evaluate and manage advanced and recurrent prostate cancer.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2018;12(2):82–85)

Precision medicine in breast cancer: current practice and perspectives

Just to set the scene: precision, or personalized medicine, is an approach to patient care that allows physicians to select treatments that are most likely to help their patients based on a genomic characterization of the disease, the environment and the way of life of the patient.

Hereditary breast cancer beyond BRCA: how to deal with it in routine clinical practice?

Quality management of systemic breast cancer treatment

Quality management is a key requirement to obtain the best care for patients. In previous years, a lot of effort was made in defining quality indicators for breast cancer in Belgium. Based on EUSOMA guidelines and in collaboration with several partners, a set of quality indicators of systemic breast cancer therapy were defined. These include structure indicators (e.g. education, day clinic facilities, etc.), outcome indicators (e.g. overall survival, disease-free survival, etc.) and process indicators. The first results of some of these process indicators were presented during the 2018 annual BSMO meeting.

Practice changing data from SABCS

In his presentation, professor François Duhoux (Cliniques Universitaires St. Luc, Brussels) gave an overview of the key messages from the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Four main topics were addressed: dose dense adjuvant chemotherapy, chemotherapy for patients with lobular disease, optimizing hormonal therapy for younger breast cancer patients and the optimal duration of endocrine therapy.

Immunomanager: a novel webtool to address toxicity of immunotherapy