This second international meeting on hereditary breast and ovarian cancer capitalizes on the success of the 2009 meeting held in Bari that brought together researchers from both sides of the Atlantic. Among several highlights, the incorporation of young researchers within the program and in subsequent collaborative activities was the most noteworthy accomplishment. The current program builds on this success preserving a meeting structure that emphasizes broad geographic distribution of session leaders and speakers, and gives visibility to presentations chosen from submitted abstracts. Indeed, a major effort will be placed in publicizing and in providing travel awards to accompany up to 20 selected submissions by junior investigators from academic institutions throughout the globe. Sessions will cover new stem cell and DNA repair biology, developments of local and systemic measures for the prevention and treatment of breast and gynecological cancers, genetic and environmental interactions revealed by animal models and genome-wide analyses, and identification of barriers to the application of scientific advances. Keynotes include a historical view by Henry Lynch and a woman's perspective on the burden of illness by radio personality Valerie Smaldone;a panel discussion on future initiatives will serve as an appropriate conclusion to the meeting. We anticipate that this program structure coupled with our 'within-meeting'experience in stimulating and following up on the emergence of collaborations will amply fulfill our program objectives, and lead to further advances in the prevention and treatment of women's cancers.
Relevance: Cancers of the breast and ovary account for approximately 60,000 deaths annually in the United States. Hereditary cancers, although only accounting for 10% of these occurrences, lead the way in the determination of relevant genetic characteristics and in the implementation of preventive and surveillance measures. Thus this meeting will be of interest to workers dealing with all aspects of breast and ovarian cancers.
