Media can register now to attend the Advanced Breast Cancer Fifth International Consensus Conference (ABC5) in Lisbon, Portugal, Thursday 14 to Saturday 16 November 2019. Registration for bona fide journalists is free.
Around 1,400 participants from approximately 90 countries around the world will attend this major international breast cancer conference, including health professionals and patient advocates. Sessions will include those on new treatments and targets, new technologies and techniques, improving the design and communication of clinical trials, survivorship, supportive and palliative care, and patient advocacy.
Despite major advances in the treatment of early breast cancer in the past decades, patients with advanced breast cancer face a poor prognosis and are under-served and largely forgotten [1]. There are no reliable figures for the numbers of women (and men) living with advanced breast cancer. However, there are over two million new cases of breast cancer a year in the world and 0.6 million deaths. About 5-10% of cases are either locally advanced or have spread to other parts of the body at diagnosis, and these figures can reach 80% in developing countries. About a third of all early breast cancer cases will become metastatic even with the best care, and the average overall survival for these patients is around three years.
The primary aim of ABC5 is the development of international consensus guidelines for the management of ABC patients. These guidelines are based on the most up-to-date evidence and can be used to guide treatment decision-making in many different health care settings globally, with the necessary adaptations due to different access to care. At the end of the 2019 conference, a group of world renowned Breast Cancer experts will agree on a new set of guidelines for the best treatment of ABC patients and these will be published subsequently in a peer-reviewed journal [2]. These guidelines constitute the European and International guidelines for the management of this disease and are widely used all over the world.
The organisers of ABC5 welcome the interest of the media in breast cancer issues and are happy to provide full assistance to journalists who are attending the 2019 Lisbon conference or using the ABC website as a resource in their coverage. A press office will be available for the use of accredited journalists, who can expect an interesting media programme. All the conference sessions will be open to journalists and experts will be available for interview.
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[1] Advanced breast cancer is defined as cancer that has spread beyond the site of the first (primary) tumour to other sites either within the same breast such as the skin, chest wall and some lymph nodes (locally advanced) or other parts of the body (metastatic cancer).
[2] ABC guidelines are jointly developed by ESO (European School of Oncology) and ESMO (European Society of Medical Oncology) and guidelines or ABC conferences have been endorsed and supported by several other international oncology organisations such as ESGO (European Society of Gynaecological Oncology), EUSOMA (European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists), ESTRO (European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology), UICC (Union Internationale Contre le Cancer), SIS (Senologic International Society) / ISS (International School of Senology), FLAM (Federacion Latino- Americana de Mastologia), OECI (Organization of European Cancer Institutes), Susan G. Komen and BCRF (Breast Cancer Research Foundation). Furthermore, the ABC5 faculty includes official representatives from ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology).
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Emma Mason
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