IMPAKT Breast Cancer Conference 2012

Highlights

-New trends in pathology research. Session facilitating discussion between clinicians, scientists and pathologists, the latter often relegated backstage, despite their crucial role.

-Updates on recent landmark translational aspects in breast cancer. Overviews of novel drugs and biomarkers still under development but close enough to be relevant for the clinic.

-Biomarker approval and reimbursement policies (Satellite Symposium). Hot issues for those clinicians who would like to do their best but are not always allowed to.

-Biomarker consensus and guidelines (New!). Consensus opinions about the clinical relevance of prognostic multigene signatures in daily practice and about defining medically useful molecular sub-classification of breast cancer. This IMPAKT first will generate published biomarker guidelines − to be built upon during subsequent conferences!

-Biotech walk (New!). Guided demonstration of biotech advances and related discussions.

-Triple negative breast cancer. Comprehensive overview of translational and basic research and its clinical implications for a breast cancer sub-type still lacking targeted treatments.

-Lessons learned. What can we learn from clinical trial failures to optimize future drug development?

Program focus

The IMPAKT 2012 program has been developed around a fundamental concept: novel technologies and advances in drug development are having an enormous impact on how breast cancer patients are treated.

Keeping this in mind, the program offers two different but complementary perspectives:

-the need for clinicians to keep pace with the rapidly growing body of knowledge about new molecular pathways, targets, biomarkers, drugs, genomic technologies at the same time that they update their skills to integrate and use such new technol