Department of Defense Era of Hope Meeting, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25–28 September 2002

The Era of Hope meeting addressed with a multidisciplinary approach the most critical issues in breast carcinogenesis. The issues that we summarize here include: a) the use of rodent models for the study of mammary gland development and breast tumorigenesis; b) the effects of stroma on mammary epithelial differentiation and malignant transformation; c) a further characterization of the interactions between steroid and growth factor receptors; d) the improvement of technologies for early detection of breast tumors and the establishment of their progression; and e) the development of vaccines as potential new therapies against specific tumor markers.