8th International Conference: Primary Therapy of Early Breast Cancer, St Gallen, Switzerland, March 12–15 2003

The International St Gallen Breast Cancer Conference concentrates almost exclusively on adjuvant, multimodal primary therapy for early breast cancer. Begun 25 years ago, this meeting was initially held every 4 years, but therapeutic progress, new strategies and provocative trials data have accelerated to the extent that conferences are now held biennially. The meeting this year was attended by almost 3000 delegates. Major topics included new prognostic and predictive markers in early breast cancer, the best use of adjuvant chemotherapy and endocrine therapy, and innovations in local surgery and radiation therapy.