Texas Time

Yee-ha! breakfast

What better way to start the day than with a Texas shaped, make your own waffle at La Quinta Inn in San Antonio?

My colleague, Shirley, and I were at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) for four days this past week. SABCS is the premier breast cancer conference for oncologists and attracts over 7,000 attendees--oncology clinicians, surgeons, researchers, pharmas, and advocates.

It was my first time there, but Shirley is a veteran with five previous conferences under her belt. We manned an advocate table during the day for the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network (MBCN) and took turns attending some of the sessions. I particularly liked the end of day Hot Topics for Advocates (aka the Cliff Notes version), which featured a panel of oncologists who summarized the main proceedings of the day in layman language. (h'ors d'oeuvres included)

Remember the Alamo

I did slip away one morning for quick tour of The Alamo. Very interesting - a handful of visitors, one school group and a homeless man, dragging his blanket, who seemed to always be in the same room as I was. The Alamo was almost torn don for a hotel, until the Daughters of Texas intervened to save the site, which is sandwiched in among the city buildings and hotels, but nicely preserved. For those Pee Wee Herman fans out there who loved the movie Pee Wee's Great Adventure, I asked the crucial question. And, yes, it's true. "There's no basement at the Alamo!" 

I took in the beautifully lit, tree-lined Riverwalk in San Antonio, the other 'must-see', every day as it meandered along my walking route past the hotels and the convention center.

Shirley and I at SABCS

As for the Conference, I have to admit I'm a bit of a bc groupie and I like to see the "big name" people in the field. My favorite evening presentation  (more free food!) was on a particular subset of breast cancer called Her2 Positive. Dr. Dennis Slamon is the rock star of Her2, having worked on the original research for a widely used drug called herceptin, laboring in his lab for many years when pharma and the oncology leaders had dismissed his research as inconsequential and funding was limited.

If you ever want to read a fascinating and inspirational story, pick up HER-2: The Making of Herceptin, a Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer  by respected science correspondent Robert Bazell. The book came out in 1998 and reads like a novel with intrigue, politics, love, sorrow, good guys and bad, as well as the science and frustration of bc research. It was followed by a Lifetime movie, Living Proof, in which Harry Connick, Jr plays Dr. Slamon.

When I shook hands with Dr. Slamon on Thursday night, I thanked him for all he's done for metastatic bc and said, "I hope there's someone with your perseverance and dedication out there, working on TNBC - Triple Negative Breast Cancer." (my subtype). "Oh, there is, " he replied. "There definitely is."

I pin my hopes on that and see myself as the long time survivor, the role that Bernadette Peters had in the movie. The only real question then becomes who will play me in the TNBC movie?