Dec 14th, 2020 - Martine J. Piccart-Gebhart, MD, PhD The final day of SABCS 20 included what is always one of the most popular sessions of the meeting — “View from the Trenches: What Will You Do on Monday Morning?” The session featured a multidisciplinary panel of experts who discussed some of the most important data and study findings presented during the meeting, putting it all into the context of clinical pr...

Dec 14th, 2020 - Mary-Claire King, PhD Mary-Claire King, PhD, called for universal testing of women for BRCA1 and BRCA 2 mutations to prevent breast and ovarian cancer. “We should offer genetic testing to all women about the age of 30,” she said. “Offering testing, which is feasible, would prevent those women with mutations from ever developing breast cancer. No woman with a mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2 should di...

Dec 14th, 2020 - Susan E. Hankinson, ScD Large prospective cohort studies have provided valuable insights into breast cancer risk at the population level. But broad characteristics such as age, body mass index, type of cancer, age at diagnosis, and progression are just the beginning. “Incorporating biomarkers can provide important insight into breast cancer etiology and the mechanisms underlying known breast ca...

Dec 14th, 2020 - Sherene Loi, PhD, FRACP Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are an immunologic novelty that is moving toward clinical utility in breast cancer prognosis and treatment selection. A decade of basic research has confirmed that the presence or absence of TILs can distinguish between tumors more likely to respond to chemotherapy and those more likely to respond to immune checkpoint blockade. “Pati...

Dec 14th, 2020 - Use the SABCS mobile app to complete session surveys and evaluations for the sessions you attended. Session surveys are available for completion once the session is over. Simply tap the “Program” tile from the mobile app dashboard, select the appropriate session, & tap the “Rate Session” button (clipboard icon). Please be sure to go through the entire survey to ensure you receive the proper cre...

Dec 14th, 2020 - With the SABCS 20 Virtual Symposium in the books, the SABCS Executive and Program Planning committees would like to thank everyone who participated in planning and presenting this year’s meeting, and a special thanks to everyone across the globe who attended. And don’t forget, just in case you missed anything, SABCS registrants have exclusive access to on-demand replays of SABCS 20 sessions unt...

Dec 12th, 2020 - A panel of experts presented summaries of the latest advances in early and advanced breast cancer, basic science, and translational research during the Special Session, “Year in Review” on Friday, Dec. 11. “2020 has been a very tough year in a lot of ways, but it hasn’t stopped our scientific progress and the great strides and studies that have been reported in 2020,” said Erika Hamilton, MD, D...

Dec 12th, 2020 - Mark Robson, MD Should all breast cancer patients have germline genetic testing? That is a question getting a lot of attention and, while a number of recent guidelines suggest that genetic testing should be made available to all breast cancer patients, there are concerns regarding the challenges and clinical implications imposed by universal testing. A pair of expert clinician-scientists discus...

Dec 12th, 2020 - Laura Esserman, MD, MBA The I-SPY trials have become models to accelerate the development of safe, effective, personalized treatment, detection, and prevention options and improve the delivery of clinical care for breast cancer patients. In this year’s Brinker Clinical Research Award Lecture, “I-SPY 2.2: Delivering Personalized Treatment for Breast Cancer When Patients Need It Most,” I-SPY Prin...

Dec 12th, 2020 - Donald McDonnell, PhD As one of the world’s leading experts in the science of estrogen receptor signaling and a pioneer in the development of selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) and selective estrogen receptor downregulators (SERDs), Donald McDonnell, PhD, says one of the questions he is asked most frequently is which of these two completely different classes of ER modulator is most ...

Dec 12th, 2020 - Early circulating tumor cell dynamics were associated with overall survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer, according to a meta-analysis presented during General Session 4 at SABCS 20 on Friday, Dec. 11. “With the increasing number of treatment options available to patients with metastatic breast cancer, being able to predict and monitor treatment responses rapidly will be critical t...

Dec 12th, 2020 - In the same way the pandemic couldn’t stop the 43rd annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the founders of GRASP are determined to continue the program they launched at #SABCS19. The poster walk-throughs will be virtual and take place the week after #SABCS20. At its launch in 2019, advocates walked through the poster sessions with scientists and researchers to talk about the science presen...

Dec 12th, 2020 - Accreditation The Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long San Antonio School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The Long School of Medicine designates this live activity up to a maximum of 46.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of th...

Dec 11th, 2020 - Today is the final day of SABCS 20, but just in case you missed something, it’s not your final chance to view all of the great science presented this week. SABCS registrants will have exclusive on-demand access to SABCS 20 programs until March 13, 2021. Today’s program opens with a series of cutting-edge abstract presentations during General Session 4, followed by a “can’t miss” debate on the p...

Dec 11th, 2020 - Melinda L. Irwin, PhD, MPH Just as no single breast cancer treatment is appropriate for all patients, no single prevention strategy is appropriate for all. Prophylactic mastectomy is highly effective in preventing breast cancer but is not often acceptable. A variety of less drastic approaches from lifestyle intervention to vaccines are being developed. “Dietary risk factors are the leading caus...

Dec 11th, 2020 - Cancer is a genetic disease resulting from continuing rounds of mutation and clonal expansion. But mutation is not unique to cancer cells. “There is an accumulation of base substitution somatic mutations throughout life in normal breast epithelium, about 12 base-pair substitutions per breast stem cell per year,” said Michael Stratton, FMedSci FRS, Director, Wellcome Sanger Institute and Chief E...

Dec 11th, 2020 - David A. Cameron, MD, MSc Estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancers may represent the single largest unmet clinical need in the field. ER+ breast cancer, also called luminal breast cancer, was once considered the default type of breast cancer, said David A. Cameron, MD, MSc. “Luminal breast cancer is the commonest type of breast cancer we see worldwide, about three-quarters of all breast ...

Dec 11th, 2020 - N. Lynn Henry, MD, PhD Recovering from breast cancer means more than good clinical outcomes. The overarching goal is good quality of life, which means balancing clinical outcomes with treatment toxicities while preserving a positive body image, good sexual health and, for patients who want it, the opportunity for biological children. “Local therapy can cause pain and lymphedema while systemic t...

Dec 11th, 2020 - After a median follow-up of 5.1 years, among women with lymph node-positive early-stage breast cancer and a recurrence score of 25 or lower who received adjuvant endocrine therapy with or without chemotherapy, postmenopausal patients had no added benefit from chemotherapy, while premenopausal patients who received chemotherapy had improved invasive disease-free survival (IDFS) and an early indi...

Dec 11th, 2020 - Among patients with breast cancer treated with radiotherapy, under-recognition of symptoms was common in reports of pain, pruritus, edema, and fatigue, with younger patients and Black patients having significantly increased odds of symptom under-recognition, according to data presented during General Session 3 at SABCS 20 on Thursday, Dec. 10. “Recognizing side effects is necessary for physicia...