34th Annual Scientific Conference
17-19 September 2010, Cork, Ireland
Improving cancer control through better information
The 34th Annual Meeting was held in Cork (Ireland) on 17-19 September 2012. Participants were welcomed by Harry Comber, Director of the National Cancer Registry of Ireland, and Roberto Zanetti, newly elected IACR President. The conference was well attended with 317 participants representing 64 countries. The scientific meeting was preceded by three workshops: Geographical methods in cancer epidemiology, led by Eero Pukkala and Anthony Staines, Trends and projections: Age-Period-Cohort Modelling using splines led by Freddie Bray, Paul Lambert and Mark Rutherford, and ICDO3 and TNM coding, led by April Fritz
The main theme for the plenary sessions was Improving cancer control through better information. 46 presentations and 229 posters included registration methods, data quality, burden of disease, cancer risk factors, evaluation of clinical care, cancer control and survivorship, determinants of patient outcome, survival methods and linkage to other datasets.
David Forman (IARC) presented an update on the 10th volume of Cancer Incidence in Five Continents – Volume X (CI5-X). (see full report below) Dr Forman took this opportunity to acknowledge the great achievement of 17 cancer registries that had contributed to all ten CI5 volumes: Cali (Colombia), Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Saskatchewan (Canada), Connecticut (USA), Israel, Miyagi (Japan), Denmark, Finland, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, North West England and West Midlands (UK), New Zealand and Hawaii. Most cancer registries were represented to receive this award.
Other keynote speakers included Dr. Joe Selby (USA) who spoke on ‘Registries and clinical data networks: support patient Centered Outcomes Research’; Professor Lonneke van de Poll-Franse (The Netherlands): ‘From cancer registries to cancer patient registry: population based quality of life research using cancer registry’; and Professor Mary Gospodarowicz, newly elected UICC President: ‘UICC efforts in cancer control’.
THE CLEMMESEN LECTURE
The 2012 annual meeting also introduced the first Johannes Clemmesen Lecture, delivered by Hans Storm, based on the extensive contribution Dr Clemmesen had made to the development of cancer registration. For the first time the conference was available through webcasts.
THE ENRICO ANGLESIO PRIZE
The third prize was awarded to Susan Spillane from Dublin (Ireland) for her presentation of the study: "Use of the antidiabetic drug metformin and disease spread at diagnosis in colorectal cancer".
The social programme included a tour of the city of Cork followed by a lively evening in an Irish pub, where all could sample Irish cooking and Irish dancing. The gala dinner on the following night was another festive occasion when guests were entertained by very talented opera singers.
A number of satellite meetings also took place: the IACR Executive Board and Business meetings, the ENCR Steering Board and their General Meeting, EUROCOURSE and CONCORD meetings