SWOG at SABCS: A Record of Success

The 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) convenes next week. SABCS has been a prime venue for publishing important SWOG research results in breast cancer treatment, symptom management, and prevention.

More than 50 SWOG abstracts have been presented at the Symposium over just the last decade – and there were plenty more before that. It’s become our most important venue for presenting research related to breast cancer, surpassing even the ASCO annual meeting.

It’s not a coincidence the home town of this event is also home to one of our core operations offices – SABCS was co-founded in 1978 by Dr. Charles Coltman, just three years before he began his 24-year, San Antonio-based tenure as SWOG group chair.

Over the years, our presentations at SABCS have generated more SWOG press releases than any other professional meeting apart from ASCO’s annual meeting, and the event perennially gives me plenty to highlight in Front Line.

SABCS has been the platform for premiering some of our most notable breast cancer research results, including these:

• Initial primary results from our S1007 RxPONDER trial were first reported at SABCS 2020 (final S1007 findings were published the following year in NEJM).
• Several key SWOG findings on managing one of the most problematic symptoms of long-term treatment for breast cancer – musculoskeletal pain and stiffness caused by aromatase inhibitors – have been initially presented at SABCS, including results from our S1200 and S1202 trials, which found that acupuncture and duloxetine, respectively, could significantly relieve AI-induced symptoms.
• Results and secondary analyses from our S8814 trial have been presented at SABCS on at least 10 occasions – the first in 2004 – including the landmark S8814 analysis reporting the prognostic and predictive value of the 21-gene recurrence score assay (qv the RxPONDER trial mentioned above).

Major results from SWOG S0226, S0230 (POEMS), S0500, S0800, S1207, and S1714, among other trials, have also been reported at previous symposia.

So, SWOG’s history with the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium is impressive. Here are some 2025 additions to that distinguished record, including primary results of our S1904 MiCHOICE study to improve chemoprevention uptake among women at high risk for breast cancer (abstracts are now on the SABCS website):

• “Making Informed Choices on Incorporating Chemoprevention into Care (MiCHOICE): Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of Decision Support for Breast Cancer Chemoprevention, SWOG 1904” 
• Dr. Katherine D. Crew, PS3-01-15
• “Radiotherapy Patterns of Care in Patients with Nodal Micrometastases: A Secondary Subgroup Analysis of SWOG 1007” 
• Dr. Jose G. Bazan, poster PD12-09
• “Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy and Clinical Outcome of Patients with Node-Positive Breast Cancer in the RxPONDER Trial (S1007)” 
• Dr. Rosa F. Hwang, poster PD12-05

 In addition to presenting abstracts detailing research results, SWOG researchers are also giving talks and contributing to panels:

• Dr. Dawn Hershman, SWOG group co-chair-elect, will talk on “Building Your Impact,” as part of a Day 1 moderated session titled “Real World Effectiveness: Career Development for Enhanced Research and Community Impact.”
• Our breast committee chair Dr. Lajos Pusztai will take part in a panel session titled “View from the Trenches: What to Do on Monday Morning,” while committee vice chair Dr. Priyanka Sharma will be a discussant at a Rapid Fire Session on high-impact trials in triple-negative breast cancer.
• SWOG patient advocate committee co-chair Dr. Barbara Segarra-Vazquez will be a featured speaker at the Day 3 “Partnership for Progress” plenary lecture, exploring how patients have become partners in scientific progress, and patient advocate Cheryl Jernigan will contribute to a State of the Art session on “Targeting the Non-T Cell Microenvironment.”

 Congratulations to all of our presenters, speakers, and panelists in San Antonio next week (and apologies to those I might have missed here). Thank you for continuing our illustrious SABCS history!