The world of urology has been focused on Barcelona, which played host to the 34th European Association of Urology (EAU) congress.

Day 1 of the congress included the Opening Ceremony, which featured excerpts from Bizet’s Carmen, setting the tone for an exciting meeting. Prizes were awarded to Freddie Hamdy, who was the recipient of the Willy Gregoir Medal, and Maarten Albersen, who received the coveted Crystal Matula award.

Credit: A. Fenner/Springer Nature Limited

The plenary session kicked off day 2 with a discussion about bladder cancer in the young female patient. Fiona Burkhard chaired the session, commenting on the fact that 1–2% of patients will be <40 years of age. The updated EAU Guidelines were also released, resulting in a long line of delegates snaking through the exhibition hall to collect their copies. Ever-popular, the Guidelines Controversies sessions included a debate on the role of prebiopsy MRI for prostate cancer. The debate was led by Caroline Moore, who argued that the adverse effects of biopsy can be significant and unnecessary in men with a negative MRI, and Sigrid Carlsson, who raised concerns regarding the accuracy and interobserver variability of MRI and instead suggested alternative treatment pathways. Importantly, the patient’s viewpoint was emphasized, with a push to include patients in shared decision-making in this situation.

A particularly exciting report from the meeting was the presentation of the largest ever study of testosterone replacement in men with prostate cancer, showing that this approach might actually slow tumour recurrence and calling into question the dogma of testosterone being protumorigenic. The team from the University of California Irvine, led by Thomas Ahlering, showed that tumour recurrence occurred in only ~5% of treated patients, whereas the cancer had recurred in 15% of the patients who did not receive testosterone.

Sunday evening included the always popular BJUI Social media awards, now in its seventh year. Awardees included #RudeFood for the Best Social Media Campaign, @Uropoet for Social Media Creativity and the late Daniel Christidis, who was posthumously awarded the Most Social Trainee Award. The big award of the night — Outstanding Contribution to Social Media in Urology — was awarded to us here at Nature Reviews Urology for ‘Both sides of the scalpel’.

the Guidelines Controversies sessions included a debate on the role of prebiopsy MRI for prostate cancer

As always, an excellent scientific and social programme proved a great success for EAU, and we look forward to next year’s meeting.