The proposed International Conference will bring together leading scientists in the field of human melanoma with young scientists from different countries who are at the beginning of their scientific career and actively involved in melanoma research. The format of the Conference will be organized in order to stimulate an extensive discussion and exchange of ideas between high level, field-established scientists and young promising researchers, but also among the qualified experts invited to the Conference. To this end each of the six half-day sessions organized will have no more than six speakers with about two hours for lively discussion. In addition, the invited speakers will be urged to be present throughout the entire Meeting. Following a one-day presentation of the newest aspects of melanoma immunobiology, the Conference will focus on the latest experimental approaches to the therapy of melanoma. Section(s) on immunotherapy will focus on new aspects of this approach and on clinical results obtained by large clinical trials of active and passive immunotherapy of the disease. Section(s) on gene transfer therapy will define the state of the art of in vitro data obtained by genetic recombination of human melanoma cells. However, an in vivo section will define the preliminary results obtained by different groups that have already activated clinical trials of gene transfer therapy for the treatment of melanoma patients.
The final aim of the Conference will be to define the most promising approaches for the treatment of human melanoma in the coming years. This Conference follows the International Consensus Conference on Human Melanoma Antigens organized on November 1992 in Lausanne, Switzerland with the sponsorship of the European Committees, Concerted Action on Melanoma Progression. It will be followed by an additional Conference that will be organized in The Netherlands (Prof. D. J. Ruiter: local organizer) in 1997.
