ASCO 2007: What remains important for breast cancer systemic therapy in the routine setting?

The 43rd ASCO Annual Meeting took place from June 1-5, 2007 at
McCormick Place in Chicago, IL, USA. This year's meeting had the
special theme of `Translating Research into Practice', particularly
featuring 445 abstracts on translational research in addition to
approximately 2,000 abstracts presented on subjects like surgery,
radiation therapy, chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, and targeted
therapies. This short summary will focus on the two important
breast cancer oral presentation sessions only, and will try to
comment on the presented data with regard to their immediate impact
on clinical practice. Many more research results regarding breast
cancer were presented (all presentations will be available to the
public from September 1, 2007 at wwwasco.org). In general, breast
cancer data presented at this year's ASCO Annual Meeting confirmed
current standards, and introduced promising new substances which
may soon enter clinical practice. The 44th ASCO Annual Meeting will
again be held in Chicago from May 30 to June 3, 2008. Those who do
not want to wait another year may visit ASCO's first special Breast
Cancer Symposium taking place September 7-8, 2007 in San Francisco,
CA, USA. Whether this meeting will start a new tradition of a
specialized ASCO breast cancer symposium, and how this development
will eventually will impact on the regular San Antonio Breast
Cancer Symposium in December, only time will tell.