Message from the Congress Presidents

Dear Colleagues,

EUROGIN is turning 30, and it has been an exciting three decades! We have the pleasure of welcoming you to the wonderful city of Porto, a stunning world heritage site, and the home of EUROGIN 2025.

The 30^th anniversary of EUROGIN gives us the opportunity to reflect on some of the core achievements of the HPV research community to date. Since EUROGIN’s inception, we have seen incredible progress in the field of cervical cancer and other HPV-related diseases, including the approval of HPV vaccines and integration of HPV testing in screening programs worldwide.

While it is important to celebrate success, it is also essential that we understand the key challenges still ahead of us and figure out how we, as a community, can meet them. While we make headway with pursuit of the cervical cancer elimination goals, there is still much to do, not least in addressing the dispiriting disparities associated with this disease.

We feel innovation will be fundamental in this aspiration and indeed this is reflected in sessions dedicated to new technologies including artificial intelligence, next generation approaches & bioinformatics, point of care testing, improved treatment strategies, and targeted therapies.

We also need to look at other cancer sites: One of the strengths of EUROGIN is its multi-disciplinary and multi “site” nature; the HPV and Head and Neck Forum is a core part of the programme and other sites are increasingly incorporated in the program and highlighted.

While EUROGIN has grown to maturity, it has always had a strong focus on the next generation of scientists, by showcasing of young scientists from different academic fields in the program, and through the Young Scientists Award this past two years, a welcome and celebratory part of this meeting. These activities keep EUROGIN young and prepared for the important challenges in the decades ahead of us.

In short, while this anniversary meeting gives us an opportunity to pause for reflection, our legacy will be confirmed by our actions in the future.  Let’s keep moving forward together!

Have a wonderful meeting.