Scientific Programme IPCS
The scientific programme of IPCS 2026 is designed to offer a truly all-encompassing perspective on prostate cancer treatment, bridging basic science, translational insights, and clinical innovation. Each session is carefully structured to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue and will cover critical and emerging areas in the field, including androgen receptor (AR) inhibitors, combination strategies to overcome ARi resistance, predictive biomarkers, immunotherapy, theranostics, and antibody-drug conjugates. From fundamental mechanisms to emerging, real-world clinical applications, every topic will be addressed through a curated sequence of talks by world-leading experts, ensuring a cohesive and forward-looking view of how next-generation therapies are shaping the future of prostate cancer care.
The scientific programme of the
International Prostate Cancer Symposium From Tuesday 28 April to Wednesday 29 April, 2026 is now available.
The programme may slightly change, depending on new scientific data that is presented in the near future.
Tuesday 28th April
| 14:00 – 14:10 |
WELCOME and OPENING REMARKS |
Duration |
|
| 14:10 – 14:50 |
American Association for cancer research (AACR) Opening Lecture |
Chaired by M. Foti, CEO of the American Association for Cancer Research |
Duration |
| 14:50 – 17:00 | NEXT-GENERATION AR INHIBITORS: DEGRADERS & BEYOND | Chairs: J.P. Theurillat A.J. Armstrong |
Duration |
| 14:50 – 15:10 | Targeted protein degradation for regulation of nuclear hormone receptors | N.H. Thomä |
20 min |
| 15:10 – 15:30 | Preventing Disease Progression under AR suppression Through TRIM24 Degradation | J.P. Theurillat |
20 min |
|
2 Selected Abstract Oral Presentations |
20 min | ||
| 15:30 – 15:40 | Targeting lineage plasticity for castration-resistant prostate cancer by inhibiting a novel metabolic vulnerability | H.-K. Lin |
10 min |
| 15:40 – 15:50 |
Targeting of FOXA1 and FOXA2 by Small Molecules Disables the Oncogenic Output of Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer |
N. Formaggio | 10 min |
| 15:50 – 16:10 | Neoadjuvant therapy in prostate cancer: present and future directions A. Briganti Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, IT |
Chaired by J. Walz, Institut Paoli-Calmettes Cancer Centre, FR |
20 min |
| 16:10 – 16:40 |
COFFEE BREAK |
| 16:40 – 17:00 | Lessons from clinical trials involving AR degraders | A.J. Armstrong |
20 min |
| 17:00 – 18:20 | COMBINATION THERAPIES: HOW TO PREVENT ARi RESISTANCE | Chairs: M. Rubin A. Briganti J. Walz |
Duration |
| 17:00 – 17:20 | Targeting heterogeneity in metastatic prostate cancer to prevent resistance | P.S. Nelson |
20 min |
| 17:20 – 17:40 | Genomic and transcriptomic features of androgen receptor signaling inhibitor resistance | W. Zwart |
20 min |
| 17:40 – 18:00 | A Unifying Genetic Hallmark of Lethal Metastatic Prostate Cancer | L. Trotman |
20 min |
|
2 Selected Abstract Oral Presentations |
20 min | ||
| 18:00 – 18:10 | 11-oxygenated androgens sustain Androgen Receptor activation and drive advanced prostate cancer progression | A. Lacoste |
10 min |
| 18:10 – 18:20 |
Evolutionary Trajectories Driving Lethal Prostate Cancer |
O. Vainauskas | 10 min |
Wednesday 29th April
| 09:00 – 09:30 | Liquid Biopsies: Methods and Applications F. Demichelis Vice-Rector for research of the University of Trento, IT |
Chaired by H. Beltran, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA |
Duration |
| 09:30 – 11:20 | PREDICTIVE BIOMARKERS: CAN WE DISCERN SIGNAL FROM NOISE? | Chairs: H. Beltran A. Bjartell |
Duration: |
| 09:30 – 09:50 | Detection of Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer via DNA Methylation | H. Beltran |
20 min |
| 09:50 – 10:10 | Molecular sub-grouping of metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer | G. Attard |
20 min |
| 10:10 – 10:30 |
COFFEE BREAK |
||
| 10:30 – 10:50 | Predictive markers for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer | C. Sweeney | 20 min |
|
3 Selected Abstract Oral Presentations |
30 min | ||
| 10:50 – 11:00 | Combined circulating tumor DNA and serum prostate specific antigen for dynamic monitoring of metastatic prostate cancer starting first-line treatment | A. Jayaram |
10 min |
| 11:00 – 11:10 |
Biological determinants of prostate cancer response to neoadjuvant hormone therapy |
T. Taha | 10 min |
| 11:10 – 11:20 |
Clinical and Functional Genomic Drivers of ARPI Resistance: Creating a Learning Loop From Retrospective Insights to Prospective Clinical Trial Strategy |
K. Shah | 10 min |
| 11:20 – 12:30 | NEW FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOTHERAPY PROSTATE CANCER? | Chairs: J. de Bono C. Drake |
Duration: 60 min |
| 11:20 – 11:40 | Immune response patterns in prostate cancer | A. Alimonti | 20 min |
| 11:40 – 12:00 | Novel T-cells engagers in prostate cancer | J. de Bono | 20 min |
| 12:00 – 12:20 | Next-generation approaches to immunotherapy | C. Drake | 20 min |
|
1 Selected Abstract Oral Presentation |
10 min | ||
| 12:20 – 12:30 | TET2-CHIP Remodels the Myeloid Tumor Microenvironment and Accelerates Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer | M. Maddalena |
10 min |
|
12:30 – 14:00 |
LUNCH BREAK – |
||
| 14:00 – 14:30 | POSTER FLASH – Room B1 15 Selected Abstracts |
| 12:30 – 14:00 | POSTER SESSION EXHIBITION: PAPER | ||
| Molecular Biology and Genetics | |||
| 1 | Elucidating the role of DNA-dependent dimerization for androgen receptor signaling | K. Peperstraete | |
| 2 | Epithelial cell-intrinsic role of SOCS1 in maintaining prostate tissue homeostasis, attenuating inflammation and reducing susceptibility to carcinogenesis | S. Ilangumaran | |
| 3 | Decoding the Complexity of Prostate Cancer Evolution: Uncovering Heterogeneous Cell States by Cutting-Edge Integrative Approaches | G. A. Cassanmagnago | |
| 4 | From Reconstruction to Resolution: Platform Approaches to Engineer the Prostate Cancer Phenoscape and Map Its Evolution | M. Bezzi | |
| 5 | Chronic Circadian Disruption Promotes Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer Pathogenesis | W. Huang | |
| 6 | Prostate cancer–derived extracellular vesicles promote GDF15⁺ immunoregulatory macrophage polarization within the tumor microenvironment | A. Mazumdar | |
| 7 | Drosophila accessory gland: a tool to unveil and understand the molecular program of resistance. | C. de Joussineau | |
| 8 | A Quality By Design-Based Approach For Screening of Ingredients And Optimization of Formulation For Prostate Cancer | V. Peddinti | |
| 9 | Compensating Transcription Factors in Treatment-Induced Cellular Plasticity and Adaptive Resistance in Advanced Prostate Cancer | W. Dekker | |
| 10 | PARP supports intratumor immature neutrophil expansion in cancer | M. Maddalena | |
| 11 | Targeting Pre-Existing Club-Like Cells in Prostate Cancer Potentiates Androgen Deprivation Therapy | V. Goffin | |
| 12 | From AR+ to AR- : STING signaling and hormone therapy-induced lineage plasticity in prostate cancer | J. Van Goubergen | |
| 13 | Adipocyte-derived androgens: role in progression and castration resistance of prostate cancer at the primary and bone metastatic site | M. Lacombe | |
| 14 | CRISPR screen reveals essential pathways that crosstalk with androgen receptor signaling in prostate cancer | B. Haendler | |
| 15 | An advanced 3D model of bone metastasis from castration-resistant prostate cancer reveals a vicious cycle of citrate and lactate and unveils a new therapeutic axis | A. Pasquarelli | |
| 16 | Genome-wide CRISPR screen in prostate cancer cells reveals drivers of macrophage-mediated cell kill | A. Zaalberg | |
| 17 | Single-cell analysis uncovers preserved prostate cancer lineages and universally altered pathways in Matrigel-free patient-derived organoids | R. Dolgos | |
| 18 | SWI/SNF Dependency as a Druggable Driver of Lineage Plasticity in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer | I. Paassen | |
| 19 | Investigating the role of therapy-induced senescence in the development of prostate cancer bone metastases within a human in vitro model of bone | I. Dziri | |
| 20 | ARMUK: a tool for the integration of user’s knowledge in the mining of frequent patterns and association rules in cancer genomics | S. Michel | |
| 21 | FOXA1 loss drives basal/squamous de-differentiation of prostate cancer and induces an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment | J. Yu | |
| 22 | Targeting ERG oncogenic activation with an intracellular mini-antibody in TMPRSS2:ERG fusion-positive prostate cancer. | C. Musumeci | |
| 23 | Role of AR-FOXA1 composite element in chromatin landscaping of highrisk prostate cancer | H. Willems | |
| 26 | DNA methylation across prostate cancer disease states |
S. Lise | |
| 27 | PRC2 subunit AEBP2 is a prognostic marker in metastatic prostate cancer | E. Takala | |
| 28 | YAP/TAZ Signalling is Prognostic and Negatively Associated with AR Activity in Prostate Cancer | A. Schlag | |
| Diagnostics & Biomarkers | |||
| 29 | Immuno-metabolic phenotypes in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC): post-hoc analysis of the ENZAMET trial (ANZUP 1304) | L. Horvath | |
| 30 | Non-invasive prostate cancer subtyping using 5hmC-sequencing of cellfree DNA. | M. Sjöström | |
| 31 | High-throughput circulating proteome for non-invasive identification of clinically significant prostate cancer | P. Ostano | |
| 32 | Building Movember-SAiGENCI-Transformational Integrated Repository (MSTIR): A global database to enable clinical and biomarker discovery in prostate cancer care | S. McKeown | |
| 33 | Prognostic value of circulating CD11b+CD33+ myeloid cells in localized prostate cancer | V. Moscarda | |
| 34 | Transcriptome-wide classifiers for clinical stratification of high-risk locally advanced prostate cancer | S. Howlett | |
| 35 | Comprehensive AI analysis of prostatectomy slides reveals poor representation of immune heterogeneity in core biopsies | M. Fittall | |
| 36 | Multimodal Artificial Intelligence Prediction of Abiraterone Efficacy for Non-Metastatic High-Risk Prostate Cancer in Two STAMPEDE Phase 3 Trials | E. Grist | |
| 37 | NMR-based metabolomics to differentiate clinically insignificant from clinically significant prostate cancer: Interim results of the prospective multicenter PROSPIN trial | M. Ladurner | |
| 38 | Association between air pollution exposure and the incidence, progression, and prognosis of prostate cancer: Evidence from multiple cohort studies | B. Zeng | |
| 39 | Association and Causal Verification Between Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential and Prostate Cancer Risk: A Large-Scale Population-Based Study | X. Zhou | |
| 40 | Survival outcomes following PSMA PET/CT staging in unfavourable intermediate-risk prostate cancer | S. Damiani | |
| 41 | Identification of circulating and tissue biomarkers to predict early biochemical recurrence in intermediate grade prostate cancer patients | C. Peraldo Neia | |
| 42 | Circulating tumour DNA and outcome in stereotactic body radiotherapy treated oligoprogressing metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer patients in the TRAP trial | D. Wetterskog | |
| 43 | PSMA-PET tumor volume risk stratifies non-metastatic castrationresistant prostate cancer | C. Civan | |
| 44 | Prognostic role of PSMA PET/CT in intermediate-risk prostate cancer patients | P. Guglielmo | |
| 45 | ProClass: A gene expression-based classifier for predicting recurrence in localized prostate cancer post-prostatectomy, independent of intraand interfocal heterogeneity | R. Skotheim | |
| 46 | From focality to fusions: Towards improved risk stratification and personalised treatment for prostate cancer patients | S. Kidd | |
| 47 | Impact of germline and somatic BRCA alterations on the progressionpatterns of Metastatic Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer (mHSPC) by disease volume | J. E. Villarrubia | |
| 48 | Plasma-based assessment of microsatellite instability in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer using the PCF_SELECT targeted capture panel | S. Chan | |
| 49 | Systemic myeloid signatures and S100A12 predict poor prognosis in metastatic prostate cancer and reflect tumor-induced inflammation in preclinical models | M. Lundholm | |
| 50 | Integrated proteomic profiling of prostate cancer extracellular vesicles across tissue, plasma, and urine identifies matrix-specific and metastasis-associated signatures | V. Constâncio | |
| Therapeutic resistance | |||
| 51 | Intracellular osteopontin dictates the release of TNFα by mast cells to restrain neuroendocrine prostate cancer | E. Jachetti | |
| 52 | Novel patient-derived organoid xenograft models reveal molecular and clinical trajectories of prostate caner progression | R. Parmentier | |
| 53 | When Senescence Backfires: The Role of B Cells in PCa Progression | M. Colucci | |
| 54 | Mast cells shape tumor cell metabolism to restrain treatment-related neuroendocrine prostate cancer | G. B. Scialpi | |
| 56 | JMJD6 impact on prostate cancer: revealing a new epigenetic pathway driving neuroendocrine differentiation | V. Pinna | |
| Novel treatments | |||
| 57 | Restoring the PTEN Tumor Suppressor Axis: Small-Molecule Inhibition of the WWP1/WWP2 E3 Ligases | J. Sgrignani | |
| 58 | In silico discovery of potent small molecule inhibitors targeting the AR N-Terminal Domain for treating castration-resistant prostate cancer | S. Soldati & E. Gamba | |
| 59 | Development of novel [18F]FDG-PSMA hybrid PET tracer | M. Gredičak | |
| 60 | CDK9 inhibition promotes broad transcriptomic and phenotypic changes in prostate cancer reversing the imbalance in tricarboxylic acid cycle metabolism | E. Federici | |
| 62 | Development of a Soluble Compound Targeting Mitochondrial Complex I for Prostate Cancer Treatment – A Photosensitizer for PDT Application in Precision Treatment | T. T. Le | |
| 63 | Exploration of Indane Scaffold Antagonists for combination prostate cancer therapy with cold Atmospheric Plasma |
S. Zhang | |
| Clinical Trials | |||
| 64 | Biological determinants of prostate cancer response to neoadjuvant hormone therapy | M. Ismail |
| 12:30 – 14:00 | POSTER SESSION EXHIBITION: TOTEM DISPLAY | ||
| Diagnostics & Biomarkers | |||
| Androgen Deprivation Therapy–Induced Acceleration of Aging and Its Early Prediction in Prostate Cancer: A Multi-Omics Prospective Cohort and Mechanistic Study |
Y. Luo | ||
| Associations of 2923 plasma proteins with prostate cancer in prospective cohort study integrating machine-learning and genetic analysis | Y. Luo | ||
| Real-World Shift Toward Triplet Therapy in Metastatic Prostate Cancer Is Associated With Improved PSA Responses and Overall Survival vs Docetaxel Doublet | M. Zugman | ||
| DP3: an observational cohort study protocol collecting clinical, lifestyle, and multi-omics data for novel prostate cancer biomarker identification | G. Chiorino | ||
| The role of PSMA-PET/CT for stratification and selection of patients eligible for focal therapy in early non-metastatic prostate cancer | S. Calzolai Lettieri | ||
| Health outcomes of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and androgen receptor signaling inhibitors (ARSI) in prostate cancer: An umbrella meta-analysis | Y. He | ||
| PSMA-PET as a Biomarker for Patient Selection in Metastasis-Directed Radiotherapy for Oligometastatic Prostate Cancer | R. Khalil | ||
| Neutrofil-to-lymphocyte ratio as early predictive biomarker of ^[177LU]LU–PSMA-617 radioligand therapy response in metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer patients | G. Mansi | ||
| Pathogen signatures in urine: a non-invasive approach to discriminate prostate cancer among men recalled for biopsy | G. Chiorino | ||
| Interplay Between TSPAN8 and Phosphatases in Prostate Cancer | F. Degoul | ||
| Diagnostic Challenges and Emerging Biomarkers in Prostate Cancer: An Indian Perspective | M. Kumar Mahana | ||
| FOXP3 and P53 Expression in prostate carcinoma and their correlation with histological grades among prostate carcinoma patients at uganda cancer institute | N. Nicholas | ||
| Therapeutic resistance | |||
| Minor intron splicing : A vulnerability in RB1-E2F altered prostate cancer | P. Thienger | ||
| Patient-derived organoids for castration-resistant Prostate cancer personalized medicine |
T. Phan | ||
| Stromal Expression and Regulation of the GR/AR Target MAO-A During Prostate Cancer Progression and Chemotherapeutic Treatment | M. Puhr | ||
| Identification of evolutive biomarkers and mechanisms underlying treatment resistance in prostate cancer | V. Friedrich | ||
| Molecular Biology and Genetics | |||
| Endocrine disruptors promote protein synthesis and secretion of extracellular matrix component proteins: from cohort to bench | Z. Zhang | ||
| Harmonizing the Prostate Cancer Transcriptome: A Unified Nextflow Pipeline for Integrating Public RNA-seq and FFPE Archives via Regression Modeling | J. Zhang | ||
| ERF-202 isoform is a tumor suppressor in prostate cancer | M. Corpetti | ||
| Delineating cell states and cellular interactions in locally-advanced treatment-naïve prostate cancer | R. Parmentier | ||
| A t-NEPC model to determine potential therapeutic targets | L. Bouvignies | ||
| Molecular Mechanisms of IGFBP-7 in Stem Cell Senescence: A Multi- Dimensional Regulator of Senescence-Associated Secretory Phenotype (SASP) | Y. Siraj | ||
| Prevalence of PIK3CA/AKT1/PTEN alterations in TMB-high mCRPC | L. Edlinger | ||
| Decoding the RNA-Protein Interactome of the Androgen Receptor in Prostate Cancer Plasticity and Castration Resistance | G. Della Corte | ||
| Prostate Cancer Cell–Derived Extracellular Vesicles Reprogram Adipocytes into a Lipolytic Tumor-Supporting Phenotype | G. Giannitti | ||
| Loss of LXR enhances tumor growth in preclinical prostate cancer models: role of immune system | J. Robin | ||
| Investigating the role of novel transcripts from the MYCN locus in driving treatment emergent neuroendocrine prostate cancer | F. Rajabi | ||
| Novel treatments | |||
| Cell fate reprogramming by ESE3/EHF gene delivery in prostate cancer | D. Albino | ||
| Comparative Oncological Outcomes of Radical Prostatectomy versus Radiotherapy in High-Risk Localized Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis | E. Mediana | ||
| Theranostics | |||
| Efficacy, Safety, and Dosimetric Predictors of Lu-177 PSMA Radioligand Therapy in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer | G. Shankaramurthy | ||
| Clinical Trials | |||
| Risk-adapted Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer: An Institu-tional Quality Control Analysis | M. Varela |
| 14:00-14:30 | POSTER FLASH – ORAL PRESENTATION | ROOM B1 | 30 min |
| Elucidating the role of DNA-dependent dimerization for androgen receptor signaling | K. Peperstraete | 2 min | |
| Epithelial cell-intrinsic role of SOCS1 in maintaining prostate tissue homeostasis, attenuating inflammation and reducing susceptibility to carcinogenesis | S. Ilangumaran | 2 min | |
| Decoding the Complexity of Prostate Cancer Evolution: Uncovering Heterogeneous Cell States by Cutting-Edge Integrative Approaches | G.A. Cassanmagnago | 2 min | |
| From Reconstruction to Resolution: Platform Approaches to Engineer the Prostate Cancer Phenoscape and Map Its Evolution | M. Bezzi | 2 min | |
| Chronic Circadian Disruption Promotes Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer Pathogenesis | W. Huang | 2 min | |
| Prostate cancer–derived extracellular vesicles promote GDF15⁺ immunoregulatory macrophage polarization within the tumor microenvironment | A. Mazumdar | 2 min | |
| Drosophila accessory gland: a tool to unveil and understand the molecular program of resistance. | C. de Joussineau | 2 min | |
| Immuno-metabolic phenotypes in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC): post-hoc analysis of the ENZAMET trial (ANZUP 1304) | L. Horvath | 2 min | |
| Non-invasive prostate cancer subtyping using 5hmC-sequencing of cellfree DNA. | M. Sjöström | 2 min | |
| High-throughput circulating proteome for non-invasive identification of clinically significant prostate cancer | P. Ostano | 2 min | |
| Building Movember-SAiGENCI-Transformational Integrated Repository (MSTIR): A global database to enable clinical and biomarker discovery in prostate cancer care | S. McKeown | 2 min | |
| Intracellular osteopontin dictates the release of TNF by mast cells to restrain neuroendocrine prostate cancer | E. Jachetti | 2 min | |
| Novel patient-derived organoid xenograft models reveal molecular and clinical trajectories of prostate cancer progression | R. Parmentier | 2 min | |
| Restoring the PTEN Tumor Suppressor Axis: Small-Molecule Inhibition of the WWP1/WWP2 E3 Ligases | J. Sgrignani | 2 min | |
| Biological determinants of prostate cancer response to neoadjuvant hormone therapy | M. Ismail | 2 min |
| 14:40 – 15:00 | Radioligand Therapies: How to improve outcomes? M. Hofman Director of the Prostate Cancer Theranostics and Imaging Centre of Excellence, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, AU |
Chaired by L. Emmett, St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, AU |
40 min |
| 15:00 – 16:00 | THERANOSTICS FOR TARGETED THERAPY IN PROSTATE CANCER | Chairs: M. Hofman L. Emmett |
|
| 15:00 – 15:20 | Next-Generation Radiopharmaceuticals: What’s on the Horizon? | K. Herrmann |
20 min |
| 15:20 – 15:40 | Lu-PSMA to treat metastatic castration-resistance prostate cancer | L. Emmett |
20 min |
|
2 Selected Abstract Oral Presentations |
20 min | ||
| 15:40 – 15:50 | Dose Optimisation and PSMA Receptor intensification with 177Lu-PSMA Therapy in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC): The Randomised Phase 2 OPTIMAL-PSM | L. Emmett |
10 min |
| 15:50 – 16:00 |
ProstACT Global: A phase 3 study of 177Lu-rosopatamab tetraxetan plus standard of care vs standard of care alone in patients with mCRPC |
D. Castellano | 10 min |
| 16:00 – 16:20 |
COFFEE BREAK |
| 16:20 – 17:10 | EMERGING ANTIBODY-DRUG CONJUGATES | Chairs: T. Powles E. Antonarakis G. Curigliano |
Duration: |
| 16:20 – 16:40 | B7-H3 as an actionable therapeutic target | E. Antonarakis |
20 min |
| 16:40 – 17:00 | Innovative payloads for ADCs in cancer treatment | T. Powles |
20 min |
|
1 Selected Abstract Oral Presentation |
|||
| 17:00 – 17:05 | TD001, a PSMA-targeting ADC, exhibits potent antitumor activity and optimal pharmacological properties in castration-resistant prostate cancer models. | D. Impellizzieri |
5 min |
| 17:10 – 17:25 |
CLOSING REMARKS A. Alimonti, J.P. Theurillat and S. Gillessen, |
This event is organized by the Foundation for the Institute of Oncology Research in collaboration with APC Society.
Supported by
