The Newbie's view to the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS)

Tomorrow morning at 7 am I embark on a new journey.  For the first time I will be attending the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).  In the world of breast cancer research, for advocates, researchers and medical professionals it is the pinnacle of the year in breast cancer research dissemination.  There are other major cancer conferences (ASCO, AACR, and satellite meetings) but most breast cancer professionals would agree that SABCS receives the most hype and is the most disease specific of all the cancer conferences.  So in my 4+ years in breast cancer advocacy, why is this the first time I am going?  Well, first off, its at a really bad time of year.  A mere two weeks before Christmas, the life of a young breast cancer advocate gets clouded with kids' school plays, Christmas concerts and end-of-year craziness.  Also, December can present some pretty crazy weather scenarios that have left me trapped in a random airport on more than one occasion.  Lastly, and the most common reason great advocates cannot be everywhere they need to be, is that there is little or no pay or funding for breast cancer advocacy.  Most of what I do requires a scholarship from some organization and these funding sources are often few and far between.  There are few organizations and institutions that really value the input of advocates enough to invest in this important resource.  (I will have to dedicate another blog entry for that later.)  For now, I attend my first SABCS courtesy of a scholarship from the Alamo  Breast Cancer Foundation. 


Background
In 1997 the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium directors, Charles A. Coltman Jr. M.D. and C. Ken Osborne, M.D., requested that the Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation develop, organize and facilitate an advocate program in conjunction with the annual symposium. The directors saw the need for an advocate program because of the increasing Symposium attendance of advocates and the absence of specific planned activities to acknowledge their presence and their interest in breast cancer research. With the Symposium directors' encouragement and support, the first Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation Advocate Program was held in December 1998 in association with the 20th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Purpose
The Alamo Breast Cancer Patient Advocate Program is designed to increase the dissemination of the latest breast cancer research findings from the Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Breast cancer advocates from the United States, Canada and worldwide are funded through the program to attend the Annual Symposium. Each funded advocate is assigned and expected to attend all Symposium sessions, talks, and poster sessions relevant to a particular assigned topic and to prepare a written "Hot Topic" report summarizing information on the topic. "

So what is SABCS?  Why should you care?  What does this meeting mean for survivors and medical professionals?  How do I get involved from the comfort of my home?


In the next few days, I will be blogging about the meetings I attend (both large and small.)  Some 9,000 attendees will pour into San Antonio from all over the world to hear researchers share the latest and greatest on what they have or will publish in various aspects of breast cancer research.  From treatments to surgery to prevention, almost every major development that has come in breast cancer in recent years, as had a forum at the SABCS.  


Details on the origin of the SABCS can be found here:  Interview with some of the founders of SABCS 


From an interview with Dr. C. Kent Osborne, one of the founders of the SABCS....


C. Kent Osborne, M.D., Co-Founder, San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: Well, it started, 32 years ago, when a group of us at the time, at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio decided to start an educational meeting for local oncologists.

Margaret Foti, Ph.D., M.D., CEO, American Association for Cancer Research: This is the most important breast cancer meeting in the world, it’s the largest and it has all of the major experts around the world coming.

C. Kent Osborne, M.D.: We started the symposium right about the time, fortuitous perhaps, right about the time that we were beginning to make an impact on the disease, probably as a result of the war on cancer. It was initiated, I think, in 1972, more money was put into cancer research, we began to see the fruits of that, and so we were at the right place at the right time.

NARRATOR: Since 1978 the mission of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium has been to provide state of the art information on breast cancer research.

C. Kent Osborne, M.D.: We organized a small meeting with 40 or 50 attendees – had it at a motel out by the airport and that’s how it started. We brought in outside speakers – and really good speakers, but it was for a local audience.

Margaret Foti, Ph.D., M.D.: This was the brain-child of Doctor McGuire and his colleagues.

C. Kent Osborne, M.D.: Bill McGuire, who was really the instigator, if you will, of the symposium and he was the head of the oncology division at the time, decided that maybe we should be a venue for reporting new research results.

NARRATOR: From a one-day regional conference, the symposium has grown to a four-day program attended by a broad international audience from over 90 countries.

Margaret Foti, Ph.D., M.D.: This really grew out of a desire to focus on breast cancer as a disease.

C. Kent Osborne, M.D.: And it went from 50 attendees back in 1978 to 9,000 today.

So that's how it started, so why does it matter if advocates and survivors are in attendance and how do I follow them? 

 We are entering an era of a more educated consumer and patient.  With access to the internet and growing healthcare costs, patients are empowering themselves to make the most informed decisions for themselves.  They want access to cutting edge information that is CURRENT and RELEVANT to their disease types and their demographic.  In a nutshell, personalized medicine is here to stay.  When trained advocates (like myself) attend these meetings we can give the consumer a view into the latest research with greater access and often needed translation to equip them to find the best information for their needs.  Over the next week organizations such as National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) http://www.knowbreastcancer.org/, Susan G. Komen for the Cure:  www.komen.org, Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation http://alamobreastcancer.org/advocacy.html. and publications like, Cure Today magazine www.curetoday.com  will have representatives reporting on the latest findings and highlighting relevant information for consumers to use.  Follow me on Twitter (my username is "Javabuz" and the hashtag for the conference is #SABCS).   In the meantime, check back here this week and I will save you a seat alongside myself in San Antonio...