Dear Guest
It is a honour and a great privilege to welcome you to this 8th European Congress on Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ECCEO8) organised by the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ESCEO). It is the 11th Anniversary of ECCEO since ECCEO1 was organised in Liege, Belgium, in 1997. Since that moment, ECCEO has dramatically grown up to be now the largest event, in Europe and most likely, worldwide, fully dedicated to the clinical and economic aspects of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. The last editions, held in Roma (2005), Vienna (2006) and Porto (2007) have gathered more than 3500 delegates and this number will be, undoubtedly, largely exceeded for ECCEO8 this year.
The Scientific Advisory Committee, chaired by Professor René Rizzoli had an extremely difficult task, to select oral presentations, within more than 500 submitted abstracts of the highest quality.
Besides this congress, ESCEO has been an extremely active society, during the last years. ESCEO proudly organised working groups dedicated to produce consensus documents on burning issues inour field of interest. Editorials to be published in first-line Journals in the field have now been released for the management of osteoarthritis with glucosamine, the relationships between bisphosphonates intake and osteonecrosis of the jaw in osteoporosis or the problems of adherence to treatment in osteoporosis. The last twelve months, ESCEO has issued 4 consensus documents that have been put in your delegate bag:
- European guidance for the diagnosis and management of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women (by Kanis, Burlet, Cooper, Delmas, Reginster, Borgstrom and Rizzoli);
- Osteonecrosis of the jaw and bisphosphonate treatment for osteoporosis (by Rizzoli, Burlet, Cahall, Delmas, Eriksen, Felsenberg, Grbic, Jontell, Landesberg, Laslop, Wollenhaupt, Papopoulos, Sezer, Sprafka and Reginster);
- European regulatory perspective for innovative therapies (by Ormarsdottir, Reginster and Abadie);
- The role of calcium and vitamin D in the management of osteoporosis (by Rizzoli, Boonen, Brandi, Burlet, Delmas and Reginster).
In collaboration with the Group for the Respect of Ethics and Excellence in Science (GREES), ESCEO contributed to the revision of the guidelines for the registration of drugs in osteoporosis, recently issued by the Committee for Human Proprietary Products (CHMP) at the European Agency for Evaluation of Medicine (EMEA) and is now currently working on a document defining the appropriate design in studies performed with compounds dedicated to improve bone fracture healing in osteoporosis. Moreover, in the next few months, these groups will also work on recommendations for a more ethical relationship between Academic Scientists and the Industry.
During this ECCEO8 congress, prestigious scientists, from all parts of the world, will give you the opportunity of being in touch with the latest scientific developments in various fields. Nine invited communications will be given:
- Advances in bone biology: perspectives for the treatment of osteoporosis (Prof Karsenty)
- When is it cost-effective to treat an osteoporotic patient? (Prof Kanis)
- How can results from clinical trials be extrapolated to the daily management of osteoporosis? (Prof Adachi)
- Which treatment for whom in osteoporosis? (Prof Cooper)
- Future management of osteoporosis: clinical and economic challenges (Prof Compston)
- Future management of osteoarthritis: clinical and economic targets (Prof Guillemin)
- Bone quality: myth or reality? (Prof Rizzoli)
- Bone forming agent: one objective, many roads (Prof Dere)
- Mechanisms of skeletal fragility in males (Dr Szulc)
Several companies have also designed the program of satellite symposia which have been carefully reviewed by the organisers to make sure that an appropriate amount of unbiased science will be outlined during these satellite symposia.
We really hope that you will enjoy this ECCEO8 congress, in the beautiful surroundings of the Istanbul area and that the key messages that you will take home after the meeting will help you in your daily practice for the benefit of your patients.
We wish you a happy, enjoyable and fruitful meeting.
Pierre D. Delmas
Co-organiser
Jean-Yves Reginster
Co-organiser