Dr. Rugo on Metastatic Breast Cancer Guidelines

Hope S. Rugo, MD, professor of medicine and director of breast oncology and clinical trials education at the University of California, San Francisco, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses new guidelines for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer.

The most important questions that need to be answered in this space concern treating based on biology, goals in therapy, and the use of hormone therapy, chemotherapy, and imaging. Currently, these issues are dealt with on an individual basis: between the patient and physician.

While it is nice to have guidelines from the Advanced Breast Cancer First International Consensus Conference, Rugo says, it is only the beginning.

At the Advanced Breast Cancer Second International Consensus Conference, which will take place in Lisbon, Portugal, from November 7-9, 2013, Rugo expects that significant progress will be made in incorporating new data into new guidelines.