Report of the 2009 ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium, San Francisco, October 8-10, 2009
BCRF grantees and BCRF-supported research featured prominently in the presentations and poster sessions at the 2009 ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium, held in San Francisco from October 8-10. The program committee co-chairs were Dr. Lori Pierce (University of Michigan) and Dr. W. Fraser Symmans (MD Anderson Cancer Center).
The Symposium's opening session keynote address was delivered by Drs. Martine Piccart and Christos Sotiriou (Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels). Their talks focused on the incorporation of translational science into clinical trials, a hallmark of all BCRF-supported research, and they presented findings of Breast International Group trials which have been the center of their BCRF grants.
One general session, co-chaired by Dr. Anna Maria Storniolo (Indiana University), focused on the patient at high-risk for the development of breast cancer and featured BCRF Scientific Advisory Committee member Dr. Judy Garber (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) presenting an overview of the genetic etiology of breast cancer risk. Another session on new molecular targets and new drugs was co-chaired by Dr. Carlos Arteaga (Vanderbilt University) and Dr. George Sledge (Indiana University). Presenters included Dr. Antoinette Tan (Cancer Institute of New Jersey) on PARP inhibitors, Dr. Shanu Modi (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) on HSP90 inhibitors and new HER2 targeted therapeutics, and Dr. Hope Rugo (University of California, San Francisco) on angiogenesis inhibitors.
The 2009 Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Award was presented to Dr. Carlos Arteaga (Vanderbilt University) for work he is performing with a mentored research fellow. In accepting the award, Dr. Arteaga delivered a a lecture entitled "Transforming growth factor(TGF) beta: from tumor suppressor to therapeutic target." Here he was able to provide an example of personalized medicine. Dr. Arteaga commented that "We are very interested about the issue of prediction of the outcome of molecular therapeutics." He then asked "How do we identify biomarkers in tumors that will predict the outcome of therapy - positive or negative - so that we can better select patients for clinical trials and, later, for established standards of care?" This is an increasingly clear goal of cancer therapy and has been a core focus for BCRF from its inception.
Another general session keynote address was delivered by Dr. Michael Clarke (Stanford University) and centered on the relevance of stem cells to the prevention and treatment of breast cancer. Dr. Clarke's laboratory has found that a minority of the cancer cells within a breast tumor, called breast cancer stem cells, are responsible for sustaining a tumor's activity. He has also noted that it is only the breast cancer stem cells that can disseminate from the original breast tumor to metastasize and form new tumors in distant organs. Thus, understanding how breast cancer stem cells in particular spread to distant organs may give insights into ways to both treat this problem and ultimately prevent it from happening.
Another general session, focused on the evaluation and integration of new diagnostic technologies into clinical care, was co-chaired by Dr. Laura Esserman (University of California, San Francisco), and included a presentation by Dr. Daniel Hayes (University of Michigan) on implementing and assessing new tests for patient care. As we consider health care reform, thoughtful assessments of the real value of new technologies, treatments, and tests, will be critical. There was a particularly lively panel discussion on this issue.
The final general session at the Symposium was co-chaired by Dr. Clifford Hudis (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center), chairman of the BCRF Scientific Advisory Committee, (with Dr. Eric Winer of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) and centered on the role of adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with early stage breast cancer. Issues addressed included the optimal selection of appropriate patients, the optimal use of available drugs, and - again reflecting the drive toward personalized medicine - the role of new tests that can guide treatment choice.
