Meeting Highlights: International Consensus Panel on the Treatment of Primary Breast Cancer

Abstract

Providing effective care for patients with early stage breast cancer and designing appropriate recommendations for women at high risk of developing the disease are important public health goals. More than ever, progress requires integrated understanding based on the continuous interaction among several scientific and clinical disciplines. In February 1998, the 6th International Conference on Adjuvant Therapy of Primary Breast Cancer was held in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Knowledge of breast cancer genetics, diagnosis, and treatment has evolved since the 5th International Conference that was held in March 1995. At that time, a fundamental theme was to distinguish the role of prognostic factors used in the definition of risk from predictive factors used for the selection of adjuvant treatments according to therapeutic responsiveness ( 1 ). Also at that time, the findings from the 1992 Overview publication ( 2 ) that reported results on ovarian ablation, tamoxifen, and chemotherapy effects were being increasingly applied to justify adjuvant treatment for a wider spectrum of indications.