TAT 2008 was the first event in the very successful TAT meeting series held outside of Europe. Having a TAT meeting in the United States and selecting Bethesda as the venue reflected the joining of the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) as our second partner in this congress series, in which ESMO has been a partner since 2005. TAT 2008 was organized under the scientific supervision of Dr. Giuseppe Giaccone, who moved from the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam to the NCI in early 2007.


Dr. Julian Adams (left), who led the discovery of bortezomib, receives the NDDO Honorary Lecture Diploma 2008 from the TAT Congress Director, Dr. Marinus Lobbezoo (right).

Apart from having NCI as a new partner in TAT 2008, the meeting concept – a focussed, medium-sized, all-plenary event – remained largely unchanged. Again, this year the program focussed on the ever-expanding array of innovative anticancer agents with a cancer-specific molecular target. Many targeted agents that are being evaluated in early clinical studies, alone or in combination with each other or with other treatment modalities, were reviewed and discussed in front of audience of about 400. Specific targets addressed in separate sessions included the insulin-like growth factor receptor, the HSP90 chaperone, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), the PI3K-mTOR signalling pathway, and c-Met. The program also addressed approved targeted agents undergoing further clinical evaluation, such as sorafenib, bevacizumab, and bortezomib, as well as methodological issues in anticancer drug development. The main methodological topic was the concept of phase 0 studies, which was also the topic of this year’s pre-conference MDICT Task Force meeting. All TAT 2008 abstracts (over 100 were presented) will soon be available in a supplement to Annals of Oncology, also online, and can be viewed already in PDF format under “Abstracts online”. Most presentations can also be downloaded there.

The long-term plans for the TAT series are to alternate the venue between Europe (in 2009, 2011, …) and the USA (in 2010, 2012, …) , with ESMO and NCI as partnering organizations.