Curious about the scientific content at the upcoming 17^th edition of EMUC (EMUC25)? The Steering Committee Members offer you a preview of some of the congress highlights in this article.

Not only for urologists

The EMUC scientific programme is also consistently relevant, timely, and beneficial to a broad range of specialists.

“Although urologists traditionally attend EMUC, the faculty and participants comprise medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine radiologists, pathologists, and other experts who are involved in the care of GU cancer patients. This results in fruitful discussions and, of course, well-rounded solutions,” said Dr. Elena Castro (ES), a Steering Committee Member representing the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).

She added, “Multidisciplinarity is what scientific societies believe should guide the care of patients with GU tumours.”

Content for every GU cancer care specialist

Prof. Arnulf Stenzl (DE), Secretary General of the European Association of Urology (EAU), highlighted the sessions that cover the role of artificial intelligence in supporting patients’ journeys. He said, “The discussions about imaging helping to avoid biopsy in urological cancers will be interesting for clinicians. The session on hereditary GU cancers will also be a key highlight for those who seek answers in this complex thematics.”

Dr. Alison Tree (GB) of the European SocieTy for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) also shared more topics to look forward to at EMUC25.

“A topic that will be interesting to explore is how to make the future of GU oncology care sustainable while treating patients more effectively and efficiently. Participants can also enjoy learning from multi-disciplinary viewpoints during the case discussions on rare and unconventional pathologies, to learn more about the “Cinderella tumours”.

“In addition, the Game-Changing Session on the CREST, AMPLITUDE metastatic HSPCa, and PACE trials is a must-attend,” stated Dr. Tree.

Explore the EMUC25 scientific programme now to know more.

Have your say

Prof. Stenzl emphasised “EMUC25’s scientific content is always an amalgamation of the latest literature and developments in the field of uro-oncology, discussed with the delegates by the various players in the field of uro-oncology. “

Dr. Castro added, “Key opinion leaders, seasoned experts, and younger colleagues may have different perspectives and at EMUC, we listen to these voices. EMUC is also an excellent stage to present research in an international and interdisciplinary setting.

“Furthermore, several sessions and courses that take place in smaller groups are designed to offer participants opportunities to have their say. There is ample time for discussions, interaction, and networking, such as during the Poster Session, which is one of my favourite sessions,” concluded Dr. Castro.

Discover more about EMUC25 here. Interested in presenting at the congress? Check out the information on abstract submission.

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The post United voices for prime GU cancer care: Specialists to convene at EMUC25 appeared first on EMUC25.

Dr. Yuri Tolkach (DE) presented a lecture on ‘AI in genitourinary cancer pathology’, focusing on the clinical relevance. He emphasised that there is work to be done before using AI tools for pathology, and even though digital pathology uses 50% less time, there are a lot of costs involved in the setup, the integration can be very difficult, and there are no reimbursement mechanisms for AI tools. “We need some support from clinical disciplines as this is something that urologists can help us with a lot, and other colleagues from oncology, because the application of AI tools brings a lot of benefits to the patients.”

According to Dr. Tolkach, “AI has virtually no limits in pathology but there is still only a handful of tools (which is the same as 3 to 4 years ago), there is still very limited use, mostly because we are not digitalised enough yet. There is a lot of ‘AI hype’ and lots of studies that have no clinical application.”

He cites the results of his digital pathology validation study (Tolkach Y, et. al. NPJ Precision Oncology, 2023). From over 7,000 biopsy cores, there was no 100% accuracy, but the sensitivity of the tools was very high, which is useful for alerting pathologists to areas considered suspicious, rather than the obvious.

A new access to tumour complexity?

“There are huge efforts ongoing, especially in the industry,” stated pathologist Dr. Markus Eckstein (DE) in his lecture on ‘Spatial transcriptomics/proteomics: How AI could improve our understanding of tumour complexity.’ He shared several methods with a review of their resolution, complexity and price, including array-based transcriptome, digital microdissection, mass spectrometry, CyTOF, High Plex ISH and RNA Scope. “All of these methods have pros and cons. You must know what spatial biology study you want to perform and then you can choose the best option.”

Dr. Eckstein was enthusiastic about the discovery earlier this year of the spatial niche interactions from Cellcharter (Varrone et al, Nature Genetics 2024). Cellcharter is an algorithmic framework to identify, characterise, and compare cellular niches in spatially resolved datasets.

Extending diagnostic capabilities

“There is promise in AI and pathology but there are also barriers to overcome, but they are not brick walls,” explained Dr. Gladell Paner (US) in his lecture on ‘Artificial intelligence in grading of urological cancers.’ Firstly, he clarified that “AI in the grading of prostate cancer is architecture-based and AI grading of bladder cancer is cytomorphology-based.” Dr. Paner shared several research studies with results indicating “AI has a comparable accuracy and reproductivity in the grading of PCa with uropathologists. It can be used to enhance the grading of PCa by assisting pathologists, and can identify other grade-derived elements, such as cribriform pattern. For BCa, AI can help identify objective morphometric features for grading BCa.”

According to Dr. Paner there are still challenges in the advancement of AI-based histopathology, and a lengthy list of limitations. “None of the current available AI algorithms are 100% perfect and they need human supervision. It is not superior to a specialist GU pathologist, and the digital pathology workflow for integration of AI-based diagnostics is a costly set up.”

You can watch the full ESUP presentations on the EMUC24 Resource Centre.

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