ECCEO 7 | PORTO | PORTUGAL | Daily news march 30th

Dear Guest

It is a honour and a great privilege to welcome you to this 7th European Congress on Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ECCEO7) organized by the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ESCEO). This congress, which will be held in Porto, at the wonderful facilities of the Europarque, between March 28 and March 31 has a particular flavour to us.

ANNIVERSARY

Actually, it is the 10th Anniversary of ECCEO since ECCEO1 was organised in Liège, 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) and Vienna (2006) have gathered more than 3.500 delegates and this number will be, undoubtedly, largely overpassed for ECCEO7 in Porto.

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.

ESCEO is also extremely proud to offer the ESCEO-Amgen 2007 Fellowships, four grants of an amount of 50.000 USD each, to outstanding young researchers in our field as well as the ESCEONovartis Travel Grants which have given the opportunity to young scientists to attend the ECCEO7 Congress.

Besides this congress, ESCEO has been an extremely active society, during the last twelve months. ESCEO proudly organised working groups dedicated to produce consensus documents on burning issues in our 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, the interest of supplementing postmenopausal women with calcium and vitamin D or the problems of adherence to treatment in osteoporosis.

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.

In the coming months, ESCEO, a proud member of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) will work together with the Japanese Osteoporosis Society (JOS) to organise, in Tokyo, a symposium entitled “East Meets West in the Management of Osteoporosis” which will set up new frontiers in collaboration between Europe and Japan.

LATEST SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS

During this ECCEO7 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 including:
- Why do bones break? – A reappraisal of mechanisms of bone fragility.
- Clinical assessment of bone architecture in 2007.
- Are anti-osteoporotic agents the solution for treating osteoarthritis?
- Management of osteoporosis induced by hormonal treatments of cancer: clinical and economic aspects.
- The use of WHO guidelines for osteoporosis in European countries: clinical and economic aspects.

Several companies have also designed the program of satellite symposia which have been carefully reviewed by the organizers to make sure that an appropriate amount of unbiased science will be outlined during these satellite
symposiums.

We really hope that you will enjoy this ECCEO7 congress, in the beautiful surroundings of the Porto 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

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