Two major annual Cancer Center Amsterdam events took place last week at conference center ‘De Leeuwenhorst’ in Noordwijkerhout. On July 6 and 7, over 400 CCA professionals gathered at our annual symposium to hear all about the latest developments in fundamental, translational, and clinical cancer research at our institute.

Together, we celebrated the progress made by our researchers and the CCA Scientific Publication, Thesis, and Clinical Impact awards were presented in recognition of exceptional achievements.

At the conference, we also looked back at key events that happened in the previous year during the presentation of our 2022 Annual Review entitled: ’Moving Forward Together’. It is truly motivating to see the innovations and impact of our collective efforts to find and implement more effective treatments for patients with cancer.

Participants of the Cancer Center Amsterdam Conference 2023 were presented an up-to-date and diverse range of topics on cancer research. After an opening statement, Prof. Jacco van Rheenen - principal investigator of the Intravital Microscopy of Cancer research group at the Netherlands Cancer Institute - took the main stage for a keynote lecture, ‘Imaging the fate of mutant cells in vivo’.

The conference continued with central and parallel presentations organized around the research programs of Cancer Center Amsterdam and patient-research-groups (PRGs), reflecting tumor-type expertise in colorectal, breast, neuro-endocrine and thyroid, neuro-oncological, urological, gynecological, upper gastro-intestinal, hepato-pancreato-biliary, head and neck, hematological, lung, bone and soft tissue, and melanoma skin cancers.

The members of the abstract committee were impressed by the outstanding quality of this year’s
abstracts and presentations at the conference.
Alsya Affandi
on behalf of the Abstract Committee

Moving Forward Together – Cancer Center Amsterdam Annual Review 2022

During the conference the 2022 annual review of Cancer Center Amsterdam was launched. You can visit the online magazine here for all of the highlights of last year plus original stories.

Cancer Center Amsterdam Awards 2022

Prizes for exceptional preclinical and clinical research achievements in 2022 were presented at the conference. The winners of each category received € 1,000 for research-related activities.

  • Britt Houwen - Clinical Impact Award 2022. Project: ‘Guidelines on optimal diagnosis of colorectal polyps.’
  • Kim van Pul - Clinical Publication Award 2022. Publication: ‘Local delivery of low-dose anti–CTLA-4 to the melanoma lymphatic basin leads to systemic Treg reduction and effector T cell activation’ in Science Immunology.
  • Mark Dings and Amber van der Zalm - Preclinical Publication Award 2022. Publication: 'Estrogen-related receptor alpha drives mitochondrial biogenesis and resistance to neoadjuvant chemoradiation in esophageal cancer’ in Cell Reports Medicine.
  • Britt Houwen - Clinical Thesis Award 2022. Thesis: 'Human-machine collaboration: improving endoscopic detection and characterization of colorectal neoplasia.’
  • Sanne van Neerven - Preclinical Thesis Award 2022. Thesis: 'On the Origin of Colorectal Cancer - Cell Competition in the Intestine.'

Poster sessions

The poster sessions of the conference were well attended and a big success. There were 122 posters on display and presenters were available to answer questions divided over two sessions. The poster room was spacious and people could mingle and walk around easily to explore the informative posters.

Two poster presentation winners were announced by the organizing committee based on design and research pitch skills:

  • Pascale Schafrat – Poster: Improvement of knowledge, treatment and patient reported outcomes of small intestinal adenocarcinoma, by combining clinical and molecular data.
  • Tim Mocking – Poster: Automated assessment of minimal residual disease in acute myeloid leukemia.

The Cancer Center Amsterdam conference would not be complete without fun and social activities. This year, workshop participants could practice circus acts, choir singing, and rave dancing, including steps that could be put into practice at the late-night dance party that followed after dinner.

This year’s social program focused on performing arts. Everyone was passionately committed to sing and learn some new dance moves. It was most satisfactory to see colleagues performing together (as well as singing out loud) during the evening party!”
Vania Lo Presti
Immunonotherapy Center Coordinator

A BIG THANK YOU to all participants for making this conference a great success and especially the members of the organizing committee for putting together an excellent meeting! Cancer Center Amsterdam is already looking forward to seeing you all again at our next annual gathering in 2024.

For more information, contact Cancer Center Amsterdam.

Text by Henri van de Vrugt with contributions by Maria Ferrández, Alsya Affandi, and Vania Lo Presti.