Breast cancer highlights: Key findings from the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: A U.S. perspective

The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium has become one of the leading forums for communication of important discoveries in breast cancer research. Over the past couple of years, seminal, practice-changing results have been presented at this meeting. The aromatase inhibitors represent the most effective endocrine interventions for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Their introduction into the adjuvant therapy of primary breast cancer was prompted by evidence from the ATAC trial. Progress in adjuvant chemotherapy included the introduction to taxanes, and more recently, the demonstration that the dose-dense administration of paclitaxel in association with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide resulted in significant improvements in relapse-free and overall survival rates. Molecular targets have become accepted as rational targets, and targeted therapies are proceeding through clinical trials. The success of trastuzumab elicited much excitement, but a number of theoretical and practical hurdles must be overcome before other molecularly targeted agents are incorporated into standard therapy of primary and metastatic breast cancer.