Invitation: 12th St.Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference, March 16-19, 2011

March 16-19, 2011

St.Gallen, Switzerland - This bi-annual conference will highlight meaningful advances concerning treatment of Early Breast Cancer (EBC). The conference will build up on earlier diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations and thereafter provide written guidelines for the international community. Breast cancer specialists from all over the world are awaiting these new guidelines.

The highlights:

1. Until recently, patients with HER2 positive breast cancer had to face inferior prognosis. Now, a part of these patients may be cured from their disease.

2. New therapeutics (PARP inhibitors) will be used in the clinical setting, especially in patients with tripple-negative breast cancer.

3. Bisphosphonates are used in treatment of bone metastases, but they are increasingly expected to prevent disease relaps.

4. Advancements in molecular cancer diagnostics allow individual, targeted treatment. This means less treatment burden. Fewer women need chemotherapy - but rather antihormonal treatment.

Concluding highlights: Medical progress and increasingly complex and individual diagnostic and therapeutic strategies require cancer care in certified breast centers, says Prof. Dr. med. Hans-Jörg Senn, Chairperson of the St.Gallen Breast Cancer Conference and partner at the tumor- and breast center ZeTuP in St. Gallen.

The international conference with 4500-5000 specialists from all over the world is organized by the Foundation St.Gallen Oncology Conferences (SONK). This unique event is one of the most important worldwide for two reasons:

1. Recommendations for diagnoses and treatment of EBC are developed by an open consensus-process: a panel of over 40 international breast cancer experts discusses topical issues. This process takes place in front of thousands of conference participants during several hours. The consensus panel is then editing the internationally accepted guidelines, which are published two months later.

2. The Consensus Conference and its recommendations are based on scientific evidence and on patient-orientated care and are independent from politics and pharmaceutical industry.

Important: To speed up free access for media representatives, pre-registration is required (online-registration and further Information: www.oncoconferences.ch).

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Sender: Prof. Dr. med. Hans-Jörg Senn, Chairperson, St.Gallen, Switzerland

Information: Dr.med. Thomas Ferber, media representative in charge, info@oncoletter.ch Conference Manager: Judith Eberhardt: judith.eberhardt@oncoconferences.ch , +41/71/243'02'81