Record attendance at this year’s SCANPATH meeting
CCBIO hosted the 6th SCANPATH meeting – Scandinavian Seminar on Translational Pathology – on November 14 and 15 at Solstrand Hotel, close to Bergen (Norway). Top Scandinavian tumor pathologist and pre-clinical scientists came to present and discuss tissue-based studies of tumor mechanisms and biomarker mapping. SCANPATH is a well-established annual forum and has been a successful CCBIO initiative since the start-up in 2016 in Bergen.
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Comprehensive program
Over 100 conference participants – an all-time high attendance for this meeting – enjoyed the beautiful surroundings at Solstrand and listened to 35 presentations during the conference, ranging from AI-based precision pathology to identification of tumor microenvironment cell subsets as prognostic factors in renal cell carcinoma (see program).
The conference included scientists with various backgrounds, facilitating great discussions and perhaps the start of new collaborations. Carina Strell emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary work during her presentation. “Researchers sometimes have a tunnel view but working interdisciplinary can help us to solve problems together,” she said.
Highlighting emerging research
The Posters and Prosecco session was a great success, where young scientists could share their work with the conference participants. Three posters stood out and received the poster awards - nominated by audience voting.
Congratulations to the following poster award winners:
- Amanda Lindberg: The role of active PDGFRβ signaling in NSCLC.
- Artur Mezheyeuski: Development of artificial intelligence tool for the histopathology-based applications in research and diagnostic.
- Ulrikke Hugaas: Metastatic ER, PR and HER2 expression in young breast cancer patients.
Meeting format with growing importance
Arne Östman had the closing remarks and emphasized that “this meeting series, I believe, indeed has the potential to continue and to be developed in a manner which will inspire and be productive for the Scandinavian cancer research community, especially post-docs and PhD students, and the surrounding health care system and society. The set of exciting and original presentations ranged from discovery-based studies to more biomarker-oriented presentations of high quality. The potential of novel methodologies was indicated in a series of presentations. Many of these relied on the Hyperion Imaging Mass Cytometry resource, which was established in Bergen much through efforts and foresight by Lars Akslen and CCBIO,” Östman concludes.
CCBIO Director Lars A. Akslen is very content with this year’s SCANPATH meeting. “It was indeed a success – and at times like a “family gathering”. I am convinced that the friendly atmosphere and nice “microenvironment” at Solstrand facilitates the cross-communication and networking between groups and scientists. This represents a key resource for the future. And we are already looking forward to next year’s meeting in Finland – see you all there.”