Galway Advertiser 2009/GA_2009_06_18/GA_1806_E1_017.pdf 

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June 18 2009

www.advertiser.ie

N E W S 17

NUI Galway to host international breast cancer conference today
BY MARY O'CONNOR Multidisciplinary breast cancer care is the main theme of the second international breast cancer conference to be held at the Arts Millennium Building at NUI Galway on Thursday (today) and Friday. The event will be of interest to professionals involved in breast cancer management including surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, radiologists, pathologists and breast care nurses. Several of the key speakers are well-known internationally and include Professor Paul Goss, director of breast cancer research and Avon foundation senior scholar at Massachusetts General Hospital cancer centre and professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, Professor Joe Ragaz from McGill University, Canada and Professor Carsten Rose from Lund University Hospital, Sweden. UK speakers include Professor Carlos Caldas, University of Cambridge, Professor Mike Dixon, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh and Professor John Robertson, professor of surgery at University of Nottingham. Professor John Crown, consultant medical oncologist at St Vincent's University Hospital and St Luke's Hospital, Dublin will deliver a keynote lecture entitled "Future in Adjuvant Breast Cancer Treatment" on Thursday at 5 pm. Professor Michael Kerin, professor of surgery at NUI Galway and conference convener, says the management of breast cancer has changed. "We now treat patients in a multidisciplinary team based environment which raises many questions addressed at this conference including prolonged endocrine therapy, side effects of treatment, medico-legal issues and advances in areas such as surgery and radiotherapy. This is a great opportunity to promote discussion, debate and determine the current state of the art strategy to individualize treatment. The protagonists include all the major players in this country as well as leading international experts. "All of these issues will be discussed at the conference and we will also have an overview of changes in therapy from Roger Blamey and Joe Ragaz, two well established international experts. The university is proud to be associated with this meeting and is delighted that this prestigious international conference of this magnitude is bringing so much expertise to the city." Local contributors in addition to Professor Kerin, include Dr Maccon Keane, Professor Frank Sullivan, Ray McLaughlin, Karl Sweeney and Professor Grace Callagy. The conference is being held in conjunction with the Nottingham series of meetings which take place on alternate years. For 20 years the Nottingham meeting has been the best attended and most influential breast cancer meeting on these islands and the Galway meeting aims to ensure that these meetings are now annual events. For further information on the International Breast Cancer Conference contact Grace Clarke at (091) 524390 or e-mail grace.clarke@nuigalway. ie

Professor Michael Kerin, professor of surgery at NUI Galway and conference convener.