Breast Cancer Symposium in Toronto with Dr. Slamon
 

There is a Breast Cancer Symposium at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto on Saturday March 7 from 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.- Dr. Tak Mak, Canada's most cited medical scientist, and Dr. Dennis Slamon, who is on the Scientific Advisory Board at PMH, will be talking about their advances in breast cancer research and treatment.

I am thrilled to be attending this event and hopefully will get to meet Dr. Slamon. If anyone else would like to attend, please PM me and I will give out contact details.

all the best
caya

Awesome Caya - take good notes! He's really nice, we said hi to him at SABCS in the bar...

Hello Caya, thanks for letting us all know about the conference. If possible, could you try to find out when there will be another update to the BCIRG 006 trial results? I chose the TCH regimen based on the interim results of that study and I have been waiting for additional results to be published but haven't seen anything. Thanks so much and enjoy the conference. Mary Ann

I will try my best to find out Mary Ann. I will print your your post and take it with me.

I will take as many notes as I can.

all the best
caya

Hi Caya,
I can't figure out how to pm so I hope you
see this in time. I would love to go to Toronto
and this is a perfect weekend for me to do that.
Please give me the details.
Thank you,
Laurie

Hi Laurieanne,

I just replied to your PM. Let me know if you got it.

all the best
caya

Cool, I would love to see Dr. Salmon. Maybe that will be possible. Got to check my schedule.

Caya,

You are so lucky to get to meet and hear his lecture. Please let us know what he and the other doctors have to say.

Amelia

Back from the Symposium...
 

It was a wonderful afternoon with Dr. Slamon, Dr. Tak Mak and other BC researchers who all made presentations of their work.

Dr. Tak Mak told us that there are 180 researchers working at PMH every day to find the cure. About 10 of the doctors who specialize in BC were at the conference, and of course the highlight was Dr. Slamon and his Herceptin presentation. It really was quite chilling when he put up the charts of survival rates of the different subtypes of BC - before Herceptin - no wonder we Her2ers were known for "poor prognosis".

His talk was pretty basic for someone who knows alot about Herceptin and Her 2, ( uh, me, thanks in great part to this wonderful site), but it was still thrilling to see Dr. Slamon himself explain it all. I approached him afterwards and he is such a gracious humble man. Many of us in the audience had tears in our eyes when the V.P. of the hospital thanked him for coming, knowing that many of us were Her2 survivors ,- thanks to him (I was one of the tearful).

He told us that one of his first Herceptin patients is 17 years out. I asked him what he thought of Zometa, and he said "good in the short term, concerned about long term effects." MaryAnn - CA - I asked him when there would be an update to the BCIRG 006 trial - he told me later this year, they are still waiting for some results. He told another woman that for Her2+ patients the drs. (in the States) are not using anthryciline based chemo much anymore to cut the cardiac risk associated with Herceptin, going more with TCH.

I also told him that everyone from Joe and Christine's Her2support group sent a big hello, and he gave me a big smile and "thanks" when I said that. He very patiently spoke to everyone who waited in line to speak to him. I happened to see him outside the hospital when I went to get my car, he told me he was on his way back to LA. I thanked him again for all his efforts.

Dr. Slamon, Dr. Tak Mak and the other doctors said the future for finding the cure is very hopeful. They are building a tumour bank at PMH to do more research, and I am going to call the hospital next week to get more information, I would be happy to donate mine.

All in all, a very emotional day.

Caya,

Thanks for letting us know what happened. I got tears in my eyes reading your post.

Amelia