The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) takes place annually in early December and has become the coveted event of the year! For 43 years, experts have been gathering to discuss and present state-of-the-art research in breast cancer. What once was a local one-day regional conference back in 1977 has expanded into a five-day international symposium attracting 8000+ physicians, researchers, surgical, gynecologic, and radiation oncology, as well as patient advocates from across 90+ countries.
From research presentations, poster sessions, networking, and advocacy, SABCS 2020, in it's virtual environment this year, did not let us down. In case you missed the flurry of #SABCS2020 going viral across twitter, this week's #FeatureFriday curates our key take-a-ways and hot topics from the conference.
Did you attend any of the sessions? What were your highlights and favorite sessions?
Let us know at hello@survivingbreastcancer.org.
~SBC Editorial Team
Articles:
“Although our analysis did not show any significant difference in terms of recurrences between anastrozole and tamoxifen, it really shows that an improved understanding of adverse-event profiles will help patients with hormone receptor–positive ductal carcinoma in situ to make an informed decision regarding their treatment,” said study presenter Ivana Sestak, PhD, Centre for Cancer Prevention, London, United Kingdom.
Recent years have seen calls for genetic testing for all patients with breast cancer, most notably from the American Society of Breast Surgeons, which issued guidelines in February of last year urging genetic testing with a multi-gene panel for every person diagnosed with breast cancer. Published research also has supported population-based screening among those diagnosed with the disease, while other research has urged caution for such an approach. According to Robson, since criteria for genetic testing was first established, some of the assumptions previously used to asses risk have since been debunked. Something Robson says has become evident in recent years is that family history criteria are somewhat insensitive for detecting pathogenic variants (PVs).
The "hottest" presentation at the upcoming 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) coms from RxPONDER (abstract GS3-00), a major randomized clinical trial assessing use of a recurrence score among women with lymph node-positive, early-stage breast cancer to determine who might safely forgo chemotherapy. If the new trial sounds familiar, that's because it's a lot like the TAILORx trial, the results of which were first presented in 2018 and have changed practice in women with early-stage disease and no lymph node involvement. "This is the lymph-node positive TAILORx. It's extremely important," Kaklamani told Medscape Medical News, adding that both trials involved women with HR-positive, HER2-negative disease.
Can Mindfulness Meditation and Survivorship Education Help to Reduce Depression in Young Breast Cancer Survivors? About 20% of breast cancer cases occur in women younger than 50. Persistent depressive symptoms, lasting 2 weeks or more, are especially problematic in the target population. The results of this new study highlight how 6-week interventions can reduce depression in younger women treated for breast cancer, and in the case of mindfulness meditation, improve related symptoms such as fatigue and sleep disturbance.