12th Munich Cancer Retreat

Along the new structure of the DKTK, the latest results within Pillar 1 - Therapeutic Innovations and Pillar 2 - Diagnostic Innovations & Molecular Prevention were presented and discussed as talks or posters. Further, the in 2025 newly created Ad-hoc Working Groups with Munich coordination were presented. This already serves as preparation for the upcoming evaluation of the DKTK in April 2026. 

Imaging tumour metabolic subtypes were presented by Kevin M. Brindle in his key note lecture. The Deputy Chair of the DKTK Scientific Advisory Board is Emeritus Professor at the University of Cambridge, UK, and has been a Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at TUM since 2024. In the key note lecture on the second day, Melanie Börries presented the future of cancer care looking at personalized oncology and translation. She is Director of the Institute for Medical Bioinformatics and Systems Medicine at the University Hospital Freiburg, as well as site spokesperson of DKTK Freiburg and deputy spokesperson of the DKTK. 
The talk by Alisa Maier (Weigert lab: Biology of Malignant Lymphomas) on the role of MYD88 L265P in Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma was voted ‘Best Talk’ by the participants. For the poster presentation on a SLC-CRISPR screen to enhance cellular immunotherapy, Ludovica Vona (Theurich lab: Cancer- and Immunometabolism) received the ‘Best Poster’ award. Both scientists won a travel grant.

In the Workshop on ‘Stop Waiting, Start Creating - Apply Entrepreneurial Thinking to Research, Industry, and Real Life’ the young scientists gained insights to the mindset of entrepreneurial approaches and thus inspiration for their future careers. Sports cardiologist Marin Halle, together with oncologist and nutritionist Sebastian Theurich, showed how important one's own lifestyle is as a preventive strategy for cancer precursor states and treatment toxicity. Some early risers met up the next morning for a sunrise hike on the Ettaler Mandel or for the Wilko Weichert run towards the mill of Ettal. 

More pictures of the MCR12 can be found on the TeamSite Munich.