Neil Love, MD

As many of you may know, last year we hosted our first annual series of Breast Cancer Update Medical Oncology Educational Forums. Based on the overall success of those events, we are pleased to once again sponsor these unique CME programs. This meeting will be the first in a series of three, and stands to be dynamic, informative and highly beneficial to those involved in direct patient care.

This event will utilize an innovative format we developed for a satellite meeting that we hosted at the 2004 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The focus and discussion will center on 12 mini-debates covering several of the most important controversies in systemic therapy for breast cancer. To begin each mini-debate, I will read a position statement outlining a specific treatment approach and will ask participants to register their level of agreement with the statement. After we have gauged attendees’ perspectives, a member of our research leader panel will review the available clinical research data (including new data presented at this year’s ASCO meeting) that guide decision-making in this arena. Our faculty panel will then debate the merits of the presentation and provide their opinions.

To take the dialogue further and make it even more relevant to practical management, we have asked several oncologists to join us to present actual clinical cases from their practices that help highlight controversies in decision-making in the specific areas addressed. The case discussions will be recorded, combined with those from our two other CME meetings and subsequently edited into a final enduring audio program that will be distributed to the 12,000 physicians on the Breast Cancer Update mailing list.

I am extremely excited about this CME meeting. We have assembled an unmatched faculty panel and are hopeful that together with your participation, we will produce a valuable educational program that provides relevant, practical and important perspectives on the state-of-the-art management of breast cancer.

I hope you will join us.

— Neil Love, MD
NLove@ResearchToPractice.net