| CONFERENCE |
Dear Colleague,
It is a pleasure for us to welcome you to the 9th Milan Breast Cancer
Conference - a conference of innovations in patient care. It intends to perpetuate the
environment for creative discussion, involving participants and faculty members,
which is the motivation for the 2007 edition. The conference will continue to be based
upon new information, consolidated knowledge, and interaction on controversial
issues regarding diagnosis, treatment strategies and disease prevention. The ninth
assembly of this conference will provide, we hope, a friendly, stimulating forum for the
presentation of innovation, ongoing and future research on breast cancer.
This year’s conference will focus upon three important features. The first
relates to tailored approaches to patients with the disease. Breast cancer is a
heterogeneous disease, which presents in very different ways and in patients who
have very different biological, social and human characteristics. The opportunities
for a tailored surgery and radiation therapy are greater than ever in the past.
Pathological and biological assessment, genetics and molecular evaluation are
integrated into therapeutic decision making strategies and trials are designed to raise
the yield of profiling for treatment choice. The prejudice of a “one size fit all” is being
more than ever challenged by focusing on how diversity should be used to improve
treatment outcome. The availability of targeted systemic treatments, like an increased
number of endocrine agents, monoclonal antibodies, and several agents which
interact with strategically important cellular components, indicates a significant
progress in care and an incentive for further developments based upon molecular
medicine technology. Applying novel knowledge to strategies of prevention of breast
cancer are therefore the main feature of the European Institute of Oncology Award
Lecture at the opening of the conference. As in the past, refinements of
multidisciplinary approaches include surgery, intra and postoperative radiation
therapy to obtain the best local disease control and minimize the side effects
of proper treatment. Part of such programs include also preoperative systemic
therapies aimed at allowing a more efficient control of local disease and at obtaining
information on tumor regression with specific therapies to improve knowledge on
tailoring of treatment. The 2007 Milan Breast Cancer Conference continues also to
provide knowledge on special problems of specific treatments and the associated
costs. Special attention is given to cardiac toxicity of agents like trastuzumab, and
to side effects of novel endocrine agents, while their use is being extended to larger
populations.
A second aspect relates to the changing features of care and the need to prioritize
prevention, diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. These aspects of prioritization are
particularly precious because of increased weight of regulations in applying medicine
in general and cancer medicine in particular.
A third aspect relates to discussion of the latest features of the St. Gallen Expert
Consensus 2007. Newer aspects of how to approach controversies of interpretation
of evidence from clinical trials will be therefore discussed focusing upon features
which need to be refined again.
Milan, a capital of breast cancer research, continues to house a tradition of
innovation, care and research for the field of breast cancer. Reports on new surgical
approaches, improved radiation treatments, and advances in medical therapies are
a guarantee, as in the past, for an exciting and fruitful conference.
Welcome! We hope you have an enjoyable and inspiring conference.
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Umberto Veronesi and Aron Goldhirsch
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CONFERENCE CO-ORDINATORS
S. Cinieri - M. Colleoni - S. Zurrida
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Conference
Wed, 20 june 2007