Dear Colleague,
On behalf of the Scientific Committee responsible for the programme, we have great pleasure in inviting you to participate in the forthcoming International Symposium on CANCER GENOTYPES AND CANCER PHENOTYPES.
It is now clear that a cancer cell arises through a sequence of discrete genetic and/or epigenetic events.
In recent years, cancer research has benefited enormously from the Human Genome Project, particularly as large scale sequencing aiming to compare the inherited genome with the cancer genome of an individual tumour has become feasible. Such studies have proven that, as might have been anticipated, there is marked molecular heterogeneity even within a histologically defined type of tumor. At the same time, advances in micro-array technologies and in bio-informatics have made it possible to characterize in detail gene expression profiles, thus defining for each individual tumor what we might call its ultimate phenotype.
The Istituto Toscano Tumori (ITT) promotes its first international meeting, for which we have been able to enlist most distinguished scientists, in specific aim to critically analyze these advances.
Part of the meeting will be devoted to the impact of recent advances in basic cancer research on clinical oncology; as well as on what pressing clinical issues require new research. In addition, we will have a public session, because ultimately the raison d’ętre of ITT is to improve awareness and the future of patients. We hope that all professionals involved in cancer will find the meeting stimulating; and we seize this opportunity of welcoming you in Firenze.
Lucio Luzzatto
Gianni Amunni
