22nd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, 8-11 December 1999, San Antonio, Texas, USA

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The 22nd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium attracted over 3000 registrants, making it one of the largest regular conferences devoted to breast cancer research and treatment. In keeping with the wishes of its founder, the late William McGuire, there were no parallel sessions. Instead, there was a packed schedule of plenary speakers, general sessions and minisymposia, which all delegates were expected to attend and, more importantly, to participate in. This year the WL McGuire Memorial Lecture was given by Charles Coltman (University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX, USA), who paid tribute to Bill McGuire's legacy of rigorously conducted clinical and translational research. The other plenary speakers were Walter Willett (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA), Martin Cheever (Corixa, Seattle, WA, USA), Richard Elledge (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA), Joseph Costantino (NSABP Biostatistics Center and University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA) and Marc Lippman (Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, WA, USA), whose topics ranged from the nutritional and behavioural causes of breast cancer through immunotherapy to risk assessment and the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) superfamily. Areas such as micrometastases, premalignant and preinvasive disease, and high-dose chemotherapy were covered in minisymposia, whereas the general sessions comprised short communications of general interest, late breaking results or the results of particularly interesting or important clinical trials. Finally, there were nearly 500 posters spread over five early morning or evening sessions. …