Every year, representatives from the major German Pancreatic Cancer research consortia in Göttingen (CRU5002), Halle (RTG2751), Marburg (CRU325), and Munich (former CRC1321) come together to update each other on the progress of their research, to exchange scientific information, and to develop new research avenues. In 2024, it was Göttingen’s turn to host the meeting. The KFO5002 and the Comprehensive Cancer Center Lower Saxony (CCC-N) teamed up to organize the 4^th German Pancreatic Cancer Research Meeting which took place from June 17 to 19 in the Paulinerkirche in Göttingen.

31 invited speakers from Europe, North America, and the Middle East alongside more than 150 guests from all over the world attended the conference. The scientific program was structured in seven scientific sessions, comprising topics such as the microbiome/metabolome, tumor microenvironment, genome dynamics and translational research. Furthermore, one session was dedicated to “out-of-the-box” topics where approaches successfully applied in other tumor entities were discussed. Speakers and guests were of all career stages, and great care was taken to establish gender parity among the session chairs and speakers.

The first and second meeting days were closed with a keynote lecture each. The first lecture was given by Francisco X. “Paco” Real from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid (Inflammation and ER stress: partners in crime in the pancreas). The second lecture was given by Grainne M. O’Kane from of the Trinity St James's Cancer Institute in Dublin, Ireland (Rising to the challenge: Identifying biomarkers in advanced pancreatic cancer). The meeting put special emphasis on the poster session, e.g. by highlighting every poster by a poster-pitch in front of the whole audience and by awarding a poster prize (won by Thomas Ekstrom, Robert Bosch Center for Tumor Diseases, Stuttgart).

The scientific program was complemented by a Meet the Editor event. Here, we had the chance to discuss scientific developments and publishing policies with Editors from leading journals in the (Bio-)medical field (EMBO Molecular Medicine, Nature Medicine, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Reviews Cancer).

In tradition of the previous Pancreatic Cancer Research meetings, a special emphasis of our conference was the promotion of early career scientists. To this end, every session included talks from doctoral candidates or young postdocs engaged in the German Pancreatic Cancer Research consortia and by young scientists whose talks have been selected from abstracts (best abstract price went to Bastian Krenz, Julius Maximilian University Würzburg). The conference was preceded by a Young Scientist Satellite Symposium, organized and attended by early career medical and clinician scientists. This event was focused on career opportunities and bridging the gap between basic research and clinical application. It featured presentations on funding opportunities by representatives of major agencies, a speed dating event with some of the established conference speakers, and a panel discussion on how to close the gap between the work of basic researchers and clinicians.

We are deeply grateful to the German Cancer Aid (DKH), the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation (EKFS), and the German Research Foundation (DFG) for making the event possible through their generous funding.

Thanks to all colleagues and friends for their active participation in and the positive feedback to our meeting!

We are looking forward to the 5^th Pancreatic Cancer Research meeting in Halle next year!

Elisabeth Heßmann, Günter Schneider, Petra Runge-Wollmann & Alexander Müller