Current Innovations in the Treatment and Prevention of Breast Cancer

Over the last 150 years, surgery has played a central role in the management of breast cancer and much of the rationale for current surgical treatments has been based on advances in pathology at the 'bench'. The most recent developments, however, have come from advances in basic science, and the discovery of the estrogen receptor by Elwood Jensen, which gave a scientific rationale for the observations by Beatson in the late 19th century that the majority of breast cancer cases were responsive to hormonal therapy. This marked the beginning of a burgeoning scientific knowledge base in our understanding of the disease.

The Royal Society of Medicine's symposium on breast cancer contains contributions from international experts in this field, covering the following topics:

• the molecular aetiology of hormone-resistant breast cancer
• strategies for prevention
• the mechanism of action of tamoxifen
• gene array technology
• targeted therapies
• current surgical management
• compliance with treatment and patients' attitudes to the side-effects of treatment

The symposium concludes with the Jephcott Lecture, exploring the molecular events in breast cancer cell growth and the effects of hormonal agents, including drug use.

This text will be of particular interest for all health professionals working in the field of breast cancer.

General Medicine

ICSS/Jephcott Series

Zenon Rayter