The organisers of EBCC-14 are planning a large and ambitious programme that will place a greater emphasis on new, high-quality research findings, and include measures to attract many more attendees.

“Contrary to previous EBCC editions that have mainly focused on an excellent educational programme, EBCC-14 is putting the emphasis on new clinical and translational research data in the multidisciplinary management of breast cancer,” says the Chair of EBCC-14, Professor Michail Ignatiadis, Director of the Breast Medical Oncology Clinic & Programme at the Jules Bordet Institut, Associate Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, and Chair of the Breast Cancer Group at the EORTC.

“Our ambition is to cement EBCC’s position as the most important multidisciplinary breast cancer congress in Europe that focuses on innovation. We hope to attract twice as many young clinicians and investigators compared to previous editions. We want EBCC to be the forum at which the latest clinical developments are presented and discussed, and new ideas sprout through interactions with peers.”

Co-Chair of EBCC-14, Dr Fiorita Poulakaki, Head of the Breast surgery Department at Athens Medical Centre Hospital, Greece, and Vice President Europa Donna, the European Breast Cancer Coalition, agrees.

“We want to see people attending from all around the world and increasing numbers of participants arriving in Milan for the conference. We hope more abstracts will be submitted with new ideas and new trials, and we will have presentations from top-notch speakers. We also want more patient advocates to participate,” she says.

She hopes for innovations that reflect the age of digitisation and social media that is the context for the meeting.

“We will have a paperless policy, more digital material and brand-new ideas for innovation and technology. Above all, I expect to create a trend at EBCC-14 among health care practitioners from multiple disciplines related to breast cancer, to promote the conference website before and during the event.

One of the ways Michail and Fiorita hope to attract high quality abstracts from researchers is the establishment of new European Breast Cancer Council awards, which offer substantial financial prizes and other benefits to the winners.

“I am confident that these awards will encourage high quality research to be submitted to EBCC-14,” says Michail.

Michail and Fiorita say that EBCC-14 is a “must-attend” event for everyone working in the field of breast cancer because of the multidisciplinary nature of the meeting, the high quality clinical and translational data to be presented, and the unrivalled opportunities to network with others.

“It is the only conference in Europe bringing scientists, patients, researchers and industry around the same table,” says Fiorita. “Every hot and debateable topic regarding breast cancer will be covered during the sessions.”

Michail agrees. “EBCC-14 is the place to hear first about new data generated from top-notch clinical and translational research. It’s a great opportunity to network with other researchers, physicians, patient advocates and industry representatives and to initiate new projects.”