When patients are diagnosed with early breast cancer, there is usually several weeks between diagnosis and surgery. During that time, patients undergo several investigations and discussions with their treating team as to the optimal treatment sequence. Pre-operative endocrine therapy, given for only a few weeks, is unlikely to change the size of the cancer. However it can lead to important biomarker changes in the tumour, which can be detected by the pathologist. This information can be valuable in determining prognosis. This presentation will discuss the role of pre-operative endocrine therapy in early, oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer, and how this strategy could improve clinician and patient decision making.
Belinda Yeo is a Medical Oncologist specialising in Breast Cancer and Deputy Director of Medical Oncology at Austin Health. She is also a Clinician Scientist at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute. She completed a clinical and research fellowship at The Royal Marsden Hospital, London and a Master’s degree at The University of London and The Institute of Cancer Research in novel genomic and non-molecular breast cancer risk assays. She is a clinical trial investigator and continues her translational research at the ONJ Centre investigating improving personalisation and minimising toxicities for patients with breast cancer.
A/Prof Goel leads a research group that positions itself at the intersection of cell cycle biology, epigenetics, and tumour immunology. He has made seminal insights into the mechanisms underlying the activity of and resistance to cell cycle inhibitory drugs. Most recently, his team has focused on understanding therapy-induced senescence in cancer and he has been awarded a Snow Medical Fellowship and US DOD Era of Hope Scholar to support this work. His team’s work at the Peter Mac has been published in Nature Cancer (2021) and Cancer Discovery (2023). Shom serves as either Global PI or Translational PI for several randomised clinical trials in breast cancer, all directly stemming from his laboratory findings, was appointed Chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Education Committee in 2023. Shom is also a recent awardee of a Snow Fellowship and Era of Hope Scholar Award (US Dept of Defense).
