The 8th International Symposium on Targeted Anticancer Therapies (TAT 2010) in Bethesda, MD, March 4-6, 2010, covered a broad range of promising new drug targets and drugs affecting these targets. TAT 2010 provided overviews - in keynotes and expert reviews - of drug development by molecular target but also many presentations of recent results of early-phase clinical studies with particular targeted agents. The TAT 2010 program counted more speakers (53) than any previous TAT meeting. They presented excellent lectures covering dozens of molecular targets in 12 plenary sessions. Two specific molecular targets were discussed extensively in separate sessions: the insulin-like growth factor type 1 receptor (IGF-1R) and inhibitors of DNA damage repair enzymes, in particular PARP.

A traditional element of the TAT program is the NDDO Honorary Award Lecture. This year, the Lecture was awarded to Dr. Axel Ullrich of the Max Planck Institute in Martinsried near Munich. His work in the past decades has been of crucial importance for the successful development of two targeted agents for cancer: trastuzumab and sunitinib. He founded the biotech company where sunitinib was initially discovered and developed, before it was taken over. The title of the NDDO Honorary Award Lecture 2010 was "Genetic determinants as basis for targeted cancer therapies: From trastuzumab to sunitinib and further ..."

This highly successful series of annual, international symposia will be continued with TAT 2011 in Paris, France, March 7-9, 2011. TAT 2011 will be organized by the NDDO Education Foundation in partnerships with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the US National Cancer Institute (NCI). These organizations have partnered in the TAT congress series as of 2005 and 2008, respectively.

Scientific Meeting Report Abstract book Presentations