[Consensus Meeting of the 9th International Conference on Primary Therapy of Early Breast Cancer (St. Gall, January...

More than 4,000 participants attended the congress and the consensus conference 2005, an increase of more than 1,000 participants. The conference had 2 highlights. (1) The presentation of the first results of the study BIG 1-98 -- letrozole as adjuvant, endocrine therapy in postmenopausal women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer -- showed a relative risk reduction in the disease-free survival of 19% when compared to tamoxifen. (2) The consensus conference adopted 2 new relevant developments: endocrine responsiveness as criterion for both chemotherapy and endocrine therapy. The newly introduced electronic voting system allowed the audience to observe the forming of the panelists' opinions on more than 100 predefined questions.