Recent San Diego meeting?

[Lani]

I attended the San Diego meeting. It was given by the American Academy of Cancer Researchers and was called Advances in Breast Cancer Research

The most interesting talk was given by a researcher from Germany which totally made one rethink the theories of how metastasis occur. Rather than a tumor getting so big that some cells break off and travel around the body his theory of parallel development led to the conclusion that it is IMPERATIVE that bone marrow testing be done and the treatment guided by the characteristics of the bone marrow tumor, not the primary tumor.

After the talks I went home and tried to read all his papers on the subject to digest and process it all and its implications.

Dr. Max Wicha gave a good talk about progress in what is being learned about breast cancer stem cells.

The rest of the talks were good, but not ground-shaking.

Some of the poster exhibitors had some interesting ideas--but overall the meeting was not as innovative as the Era of Hope, AACR annual meeting or 2008 ASCO (I was not at the 2009 ASCO meeting)