Meeting Highlights: The Second Consensus Conference for Breast Cancer Treatment in Korea

The Korean clinical practice guideline recently developed by the Korean Breast Cancer Society to address the national clinical situation is currently under revision ahead of a seventh recommendation. A second consensus conference was held to further develop this guideline by soliciting opinions regarding important issues related to surgery, radiotherapy, and medical oncology. Several issues were discussed, and the discussion progressed to pros and cons in the context of cases in various clinical situations. The panels discussed and voted on issues regarding surgical treatment for non-axillary regional lymph nodes, regional nodal irradiation of pN1 disease, and ovarian functional suppression (OFS) as an adjuvant treatment in premenopausal patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Regarding the surgical treatment of non-axillary regional lymph node, most panelists agreed with the recommendation of preoperative chemotherapy and postoperative radiotherapy for patients with biopsy-diagnosed metastases, whereas surgery or radiotherapy of non-axillary regional lymph nodes was suggested for clinical partial responders. Discussions on radiotherapy addressed the need for adjuvant radiotherapy and radiation field of regional lymph node in the context of various N1 breast cancer cases. The participants reached a consensus to recommend that N1 patients should receive regional nodal irradiation for a large tumor burden (e.g., three positive nodes, perinodal extension, or large primary tumor). Finally, the panels favored OFS in addition to endocrine therapy for premenopausal women with high risk factors such as a large tumor size, involvement of more than three nodes, and a high histologic grade.