Women who receive mastectomy and reconstructive surgery as part of breast cancer treatment may face the risk of developing persistent use of opioids and sedative-hypnotic drugs.

To access the 2020 SABCS app sponsored by AstraZeneca, please search “San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium” in the appropriate store (Google Play for Android, Apple for iOS) and download the app.

Day three of SABCS 20 kicks off this morning with General Session 3, featuring abstract presentations covering some of the latest results in cancer research along with commentaries from expert discussants, followed by six Spotlight Sessions this afternoon.

In one of two SABCS 20 Plenary Lectures, Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, discussed local regional therapy considerations after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and summarized some of the key “knowns” and “unknowns” related to the topic.

Like most major medical conferences planned for 2020, SABCS kicked off in an all-virtual platform. Just as the meeting adapted to these challenging times, so too must cancer research, said Norman E. Sharpless, MD.

Growing understanding of the melanoma microenvironment produced 11 targeted therapies for stage IV melanoma in the past decade. Breast cancer could be ripe for similar advances.

Breast cancer clinicians were among the first cancer specialists to use genetic information to guide treatment. Assessing ER/PR and HER2 positivity has become standard of care in breast cancer.

The antibody landscape is shifting. After years of using antibodies as therapeutic agents, they are being re-purposed as targeted vehicles to deliver highly toxic payloads to specific cell surface antigens.

Better understanding of how tumor cells respond to immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) is revealing new approaches to predict and improve treatment response.

Extended follow-up data from the phase III monarchE trial showed that adding the CDK inhibitor abemaciclib to standard adjuvant endocrine therapy continued to improve invasive disease-free survival among patients with high-risk, node-positive, early-stage, HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.