Expert Perspectives on Controversies and Critical Knowledge Gaps in Breast Cancer Management: Proceedings of the First Bridging the Gaps in Breast Cancer Symposium.

Purpose: Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer for women in the United States and accounts for nearly 25% of all cancers and 16% of cancer deaths worldwide. New treatment options continue to emerge offering improved management options for patients with breast cancer. However, as these new treatments become available, clinicians are left with many questions regarding how to best utilize these treatments and improve outcomes for patients with breast cancer.

Materials and method: The Bridging the Gaps in Breast Cancer panel was assembled to address challenges in the management of breast cancer. Bridging the Gaps in Breast Cancer co-chairs and session moderators identified areas of controversy and uncertainty in breast cancer management and were responsible for organizing the presentations and discussion with the expert panel of faculty throughout the meeting.

Results: The Bridging the Gaps in Breast Cancer panel discussions are presented. Key critical knowledge gaps surrounding the evolving breast cancer treatment landscape identified include how to identify which patients will benefit the most from therapeutic intervention, the mechanism of resistance to newly approved therapies, which therapies may be safely omitted from a treatment regimen without harm to the patient, and the most important metric(s) in defining successful treatment in various stages and subtypes of breast cancer.

Conclusions: The treatment armamentarium for the management of breast cancer continues to grow and evolve. With those new treatment options, new questions continue to arise for clinicians. Future studies are needed to address these critical gaps in knowledge about how to best utilize treatments for improved patient outcomes.