The second week of December of every year holds a tradition for the breast cancer community that has been running for nearly 40 years, gathering thousands of the most prominent experts and advocates from all over the world to learn more about the latest developments in breast cancer research.
The upcoming 37th San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) is co-presented by the Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at the UT Health Science Center, the American Association for Cancer Research and Baylor College of Medicine. The event is set to take place beginning Tuesday, December 9, 2014 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, and will run until the 13th. This year, the SABCS is expected to bring 7,500 breast cancer specialists to San Antonio.
A number of researchers from the CTRC have been invited to the conference to present their latest findings, and attendees interested to learn more from the investigators behind these studies can schedule interviews for a more in-depth learning experience. Some of the CTRC researchers set to present include:
- Ismail Jatoi, M.D., Ph.D., chief of surgical oncology at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio and a symposium co-director, who will present on prophylactic mastectomies;
- Andrew Brenner, M.D., Ph.D., CTRC oncologist, on the new research linking obesity and chemotherapy resistance in some breast cancers; and
- Virginia Kaklamani, M.D., CTRC Breast Center director, on figuring out more types of breast cancers that can be targeted with a promising new class of drugs.
Dr. Jatoi shares that, despite the many advances in breast cancer treatments and the notable decline in the rate of cancer recurrence, more and more women are opting to have a bilateral mastectomy. “This is a perplexing trend,” he adds.
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The conference has also invited key speakers Mary-Claire King, Ph.D., known for her work on a single gene called, BRCA1, strongly associated with the hereditary presence of breast and ovarian cancers within many families. Her discovery of this gene reshaped the study of several other hereditary diseases, and was even made the subject of a 2013 film, Decoding Annie Parker, starring Helen Hunt.
Media personnel interested in attending the conference next week can pre-register through the event website, and gain access to special interviews and press conferences.