Dear Colleague,
It is a pleasure for us to welcome you to the 11th Milan Breast Cancer Conference –– a conference of innovation in patient care. Each of the past ten conferences has had a first class faculty and a setting which fostered creative discussions. This conference will also include new information, consolidated knowledge, and conversations on controversial issues regarding diagnosis, treatment strategies and disease prevention. As before, the conference will provide a stimulating forum for the presentation of innovation and ongoing and future research in breast cancer.

This year’s conference will focus upon several topics of research and treatment. The first topic involves cancer- and chemoprevention. The second one is dedicated to innovation and consolidation of breast surgery and breast cancer diagnostics. An important argument of discussion relates to pathology and the heterogeneity of the disease. A further topic which relates to new avenues of radiation therapy will extensively be discussed. A new session on the St. Gallen 2009 recommendations is planned and will lead to the discussion on new modalities of systemic therapies and their integration with older yet efficacious treatment types. Much of the discussion on treatment modalities will involve the way of personalizing adjuvant treatments according to disease type and the Patient.

Special emphasis will be given to the challenges for public education and prediction of outcome. These topics will be dealt with in the European Institute of Oncology Award Lecture and in the special session of the Milan Breast Cancer Observatory.

The 2009 Milan Breast Cancer Conference is also meant to deal with preoperative systemic therapies as means for investigating novel treatments. This strategic approach might be crucial for drug development in future years considering the fact that many novel biological agents will need to be tested rapidly for finding out whether they might be potentially useful in the adjuvant setting.

Finally, biomarkers for focusing on minimal burden of disease will be dealt with. Issues of biomarkers for treatment efficacy and toxicity are likely to become a major topic in the current and forthcoming breast cancer conferences.

We welcome you again in Milan, an internationally renowned center for breast cancer research, in the attempt to continue housing the tradition of innovation and care.

Wishing you an enjoyable and inspiring conference!