Breast Cancer Trials (BCT) is a world leading clinical trials research organisation, dedicated to finding new and better treatments and prevention strategies for people affected by this disease.
Our research program involves multicentre national and international clinical trials and brings together more than 835 researchers in 109 institutions throughout Australia and New Zealand. BCT has contributed to almost 1,230 peer reviewed publications and more than 16,800 women have participated in our breast cancer clinical trials.
The 2023 ASM will also host a number of internationally renowned guest speakers including key BCT researchers. Delegates include leading Australian and New Zealand medical practitioners and clinicians, and clinical trials management personnel.
The full and extensive program will include two days of scientific sessions covering timely reviews of breast cancer clinical trials, discussion of new protocols, future clinical trials research and other research developments.
We look forward to an in-person meeting, offering the opportunity for us all to connect in Auckland, New Zealand. For up to date information on COVID-19 in New Zealand, including travel requirements, click here.
Please note that the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be in Auckland from Thursday 20 July – Sunday 20 August 2023.
The Breast Cancer Trials ASM is not open to the general public to attend.
Attracting leading health professionals involved in the conduct of breast cancer clinical trials throughout Australia and New Zealand, the Breast Cancer Trials Annual Scientific Meeting is an important event to stay up-to-date on research and to network with colleagues.
Please note that the Trials Coordination Forum is primarily for Trial/Study Coordinators; not suitable for Pharmaceutical representatives.
Our New Concept Workshop will be held at the Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) to provide an opportunity for Breast Cancer Trials (BCT) members and non-members to present new research ideas.
The workshop will be held at The Cordis, Auckland, and will involve a presentation of selected concepts, followed by discussion and feedback from the audience.
Details to be provided soon.
Symposium 1 is sponsored by Pfizer, and is titled 'The Value of Real World Evidence in Supporting Clinical Decisions in ER+ HER2- Advanced Breast Cancer'.
Lunch Symposium 1 is sponsored by AstraZeneca.
Please note, this meeting is for BCT members only.
The conference dinner is sponsored by AstraZeneca.
Symposium 1 is sponsored by Gilead, and is titled 'ADC's for HR+/HER2- Breast Cancer: The Time is Now!'
Symposium 2 is sponsored by MSD.
Chair of the German Breast Group (GBG), and Professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Goethe University of Frankfurt.
Professor Sibylle Loibl is Chair of the German Breast Group (GBG) and the Chief Executive Officer of the GBG Forschungs GmbH. She is a Professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Goethe University of Frankfurt.
Professor Loibl gained a doctorate at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg and trained as a consultant in gynaecology and obstetrics at the women’s clinics of the university hospitals in Heidelberg and Frankfurt am Main.
She devotes most of her time to clinical research within the German Breast Group and clinical work at the Centre for Haematology and Oncology, Bethanien in Frankfurt. Professor Loibl has gained international renommée for her research in neoadjuvant breast cancer, breast cancer during pregnancy and breast cancer in young women.
She established the Translational Research Group within the German Breast Group and has headed numerous research projects. In addition, Prof. Dr. Loibl has been involved in conducting and managing a significant number of national and international, practice changing clinical trials.
She is author of more than 400 original and peer review articles and scientific papers; she has written numerous books and book chapters.
Chair of the BCT Board of Directors and Executive Director of Research and Senior Staff Specialist at Pathology Queensland.
He is a clinical diagnostic pathologist and also heads a research team comprising scientists and clinicians, ensuring a translational focus to the program.
His current research interests include lobular carcinoma and its variants, basal-like breast cancers and mechanisms and therapeutic developments of brain and distant metastases.
He was Series Editor of the 4th Edition WHO Tumour Classification Monographs and Volume Editor of the WHO 4th Ed Tumours of the Breast (2012) and standing member of the Board for the WHO 5th Edition (2017-2021).
He is the recipient of the Distinguished Pathologist Medal, International Academy of Pathology (2015); the BCT’s Robert Sutherland Award for Excellence in Translational Research (2016); The Distinguished Fellow Award, The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (2017) and The William L. Gerald Award, Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center, New York USA (2021). In 2017, he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
The James Stewart Chair of Surgery, and the Head of the Department of Surgery at the University of Melbourne.
Professor Christobel Saunders AO, MB BS, FRCS, FRACS, FAAHMS is the James Stewart Chair of Surgery, the Head of the Department of Surgery at the University of Melbourne (Royal Melbourne Hospital precinct) and consultant surgeon in the Department of General Surgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute. She is internationally recognised as one of Australia’s most prominent research-orientated cancer surgeons. She has substantially contributed to breast cancer research including clinical trials of new treatments, psychosocial, translational and health services research.
In recognition of her sustained career excellence and innovation, Christobel has been publicly acknowledged through numerous awards and honours including Order of Australia 2018, the Uccio Querci della Rovere Award (2018), WA Women’s Hall of Fame Inductee (2018), WA Scientist of the Year (2017) and Cancer Council WA career Achievement Award (2021). She has performed research for >30 years evaluating the efficacy and utility of therapy for early breast cancer.
In the past five years, Christobel has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles (two in The Lancet), six letters to the editor/editorials, two research reports, two book chapters and one book. She sits on the boards of a number of health and research organisations including as Vice-President for All.can International and on the boards of All.can Australia, Breast Cancer Trials, the Australian Centre for Value Based Health Care and PathWest. Christobel is closely involved in strategic planning and management of health and cancer services in Australia including being on the Medicare Review Advisory Committee, past President of the Cancer Council WA and Breast Surgical Society of ANZ, and past Advisory Council member of Cancer Australia. She was Inaugural Chair of the state Health Service Provider, PathWest Laboratory Medicine.
Senior Consultant Pathologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and a Clinical Professor at the University of Adelaide.
Professor Gelareh Farshid is an international expert in breast pathology and soft tissue pathology with substantial experience in population based screening for breast cancer. She is a Senior Consultant Pathologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and a Clinical Professor at the Schools of Medicine and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide. Gelareh is an executive on the boards of several professional bodies in Australia. She represents Australia on the Board of the International Academy of Pathology and works closely with the United States Canadian Academy of Pathology. In 2020 she was honored by admission into the International Skeletal Society.
Among other roles, Gelareh has is a member of the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting for resected lymph nodes in breast cancer and series chair for the RCPA’s multidisciplinary expert group working on the Structured Reporting of Breast Cancer. Gelareh is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the ANZ BCT and of the ANZ Sarcoma Association.
Gelareh combined full time clinical responsibilities with applied clinical research.
Lab head at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, and Cancer Institute NSW Fellow.
Associate Professor Liz Caldon is a lab head at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia. She runs a basic and translational research laboratory on estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer, basal-like breast cancers and ovarian cancers.
Liz’s group has built models of hormone therapy and CDK4-6 inhibitor resistance to understand the evolution of ER+ breast cancers as they become refractory to standard of care therapies. Specific interests of her group are the understanding of tumour cell evolution through single cell modelling, cell cycle based therapies, therapy repurposing, and the development of targeted approaches in therapy resistant disease.
Liz is a Cancer Institute NSW Fellow, and a recipient of the Mavis Robertson fellowship from the national Breast Cancer Foundation. She is an Associate Editor for the journals Endocrine Oncology and Oncogenesis.
Breast and Endocrine Surgeon, focusing on Oncoplastic Breast Surgery at St Andrews War Memorial Hospital and The Wesley Hospitals.
Ben Green is a Breast and Endocrine Surgeon in Brisbane Australia. He has a practice focusing on oncoplastic breast surgery at St Andrews War Memorial Hospital and The Wesley Hospitals.
Ben is a current councilor of BreastSurgANZ and is the current co-chair of the Post Fellowship training program in breast surgery. Ben has a keen interest in teaching where he is a unit co-ordinator for university of Sydney Oncoplastic graduate Certificate course. Ben has also commenced as an Examiner in General Surgery.
Breast and General Surgeon at Auckland City Hospital, and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland.
Mr Michael Puttick (MBBS, MD FRCS (Gen Surg UK) is a Breast and General Surgeon at Auckland City Hospital and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland.
He completed surgical training in the UK and completed a Breast Surgery Fellowship in New Zealand. After working as a surgeon in Oxford he returned to New Zealand in 2015.
He completed his MD at Imperial College London. He also does voluntary work in Low and Middle-income countries including countries in West Africa and Nepal.
Radiation Oncologist at Iridium Netwerk and the University of Antwerp in Belgium, where he completed his medical studies.
Professor Philip Poortmans is a Radiation Oncologist at Iridium Netwerk and University of Antwerp in Belgium.
He completed his medical studies at the University of Antwerp and was trained as a Radiation Oncologist at the Middelheim and Vincentius Hospitals in Antwerp.
His research interests include breast cancer, FLASH radiation therapy, IOeRT, malignant lymphoma and rare tumours. Professor Poortmans is the Past-Present of ESTRO, where he is currently the Course Director of the teaching courses “Multidisciplinary Management of Breast Cancer” and “Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation”, and the liaison for multidisciplinary courses.
He has edited numerous book chapters and co-edited two books.
Professor Poortmans received the Jens Overgaard Award from ESTRO in 2019 and the Klaas Breur Award from ESTRO in 2020. In 2021 he received the St Gallen Breast Cancer Award.
Head of the Molecular Biomarkers and Translational Genomics Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
Professor Sarah-Jane Dawson is a clinician-scientist. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Melbourne in 1998, and trained as a medical oncologist in Melbourne, Australia.
She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK. Following postdoctoral studies at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, she returned to Melbourne in 2014 to head the Molecular Biomarkers and Translational Genomics Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
She also holds a joint appointment with the Centre of Cancer Research at The University of Melbourne (since 2016). She is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and was recipient of the Jian Zhou Medal in recognition of translational medical science in 2020.
Her current research interests are focused on the development of noninvasive blood-based biomarkers ('liquid biopsies') for clinical application, including early detection, risk stratification and disease monitoring in cancer management.
Medical Oncologist and was Head of Medical Oncology at Palmerston North Hospital, New Zealand from 2011 until 2021.
Dr Richard Isaacs MNZM was elected to the BCT Board of Directors in July 2014.
He has been an investigator on multiple clinical trials. Dr Isaacs was Vice President of the Palmerston North Medical Research Foundation from 2008-2013 and Chair of the New Zealand Breast Cancer Specialist Interest Group from 2008-2011.
He was Chair of the New Zealand Specialist Advisory Committee for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians from 2010-2013. He now sits on the Cancer Treatments Subspecialty Advisory Group to Pharmac. In 2009, Dr Isaacs was awarded an MNZM for services to oncology.
Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and St Vincent’s Private Hospital.
Dr. Richard de Boer completed his basic medical and oncology training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and in 1997 undertook a 3-year breast and lung cancer clinical research fellowship at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, working with Professors Ian Smith and Stephen Johnston.
He returned to Melbourne in 2000 and since then has been a consultant medical oncologist working in both public and private practice. His primary breast cancer interests focus on endocrine therapy, neo-adjuvant therapy, real world patient outcomes and treatment-induced bone loss and bone metastases.
He is actively involved in clinical research, and has been the principal investigator in both local and international studies. He is a member of the Australian New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group, and was previously the head of the Breast Trials Group of Cancer Trials Australia. He has authored articles appearing in journals such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology, The Breast and British Journal of Cancer.
Medical Oncologist at Monash Health Australia, and member of the Breast Cancer Trials Scientific Advisory Committee.
Dr Amelia McCartney BSc BA (Hons) MBBS FRACP
Dr Amelia McCartney is a medical oncologist at Monash Health, Australia. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Sydney and completed her specialist training in Victoria.
She completed a four‐year fellowship in translational and clinical breast cancer research under the supervision and mentorship of Dr Angelo Di Leo in Prato, Italy. Dr McCartney’s particular areas of research interest are the discovery and trialling of biomarkers related to prognosis and early response to treatment, mechanisms of treatment resistance, and strategies of safely de‐escalating breast cancer therapies. Research relating to her fellowship has been presented at international conferences including SABCS, and the ASCO, ESMO and AACR Annual Meetings. She is a member of the BCT Scientific Advisory Committee.
Vice-President of BreastSurgANZ, and Head of the Breast and Endocrine Surgery Department at the Mater Hospital Sydney.
Dr Kylie Snook (BMed FRACS) is a Sydney-based specialist breast surgeon.
After gaining her Fellowship in General Surgery in 2006 she spent two years in Guildford, UK as the Clinical Research Fellow in oncoplastic breast surgery. Here she gained post-fellowship expertise in reconstructive and oncoplastic techniques in breast surgery.
She is a high-volume breast surgeon who treats around 200 new patients with breast cancer each year. She has been an investigator on multiple clinical trials and embeds research in her clinical practice.
Dr Snook is Vice-President of BreastSurgANZ, and serves on the binational Post-Fellowship training committee. She is Head of Breast and Endocrine Surgery Department at the Mater Hospital Sydney.
Consultant Neurosurgeon working at Auckland City Hospital in New Zealand, Starship Children's Hospital and Ascot Hospital.
Peter Heppner is a Consultant Neurosurgeon working at Auckland City Hospital, Starship Childrens Hospital and Ascot Hospital. Peter completed Neurosurgical training in New Zealand and Australia before undertaking subspecialist Fellowships in Complex Spine Surgery and Paediatric Neurosurgery.
He has been Head of Paediatric Neurosurgery in Auckland since 2015. Outside clinical practice Peter has active research projects with the Auckland University Centre for Brain Research and the Auckland Bioengineering Institute. He has been an elected member of the Board of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia since 2015 and is the current Vice President.
Co-chair of the NCI BOLD Taskforce, the SWOG translational medicine breast group and the TBCRC locoregional working group.
Professor Alastair Thompson graduated with distinction in surgery from the University of Edinburgh.
He trained and practiced in Scotland as a clinician-scientist focused on multidisciplinary patient care alongside translational “bench to bedside” studies and innovative clinical trials in cancer in Dundee, UK.
He chaired the NCRI Breast Clinical Studies Group, led the Breast Cancer Campaign/Breast Cancer Now tissue bank and engaged in a range of pivotal roles in key drug, radiation therapy and surgical trials involving the UK, Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
Since moving to the US in 2014, initially to MD Anderson as Professor of Surgery, he is now Olga Keith Weiss Professor of Surgery and Associate Director of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine.
He co-chairs the NCI BOLD Taskforce, the SWOG translational medicine breast group, the TBCRC locoregional working group and is an active member and regular presenter at SSO, ASBrS, ASCO and AACR.
With successful peer reviewed funding from US government and international charitable sources spanning laboratory to clinical studies, successful supervision of 24 postgraduate students and over 400 publications in the highest impact factor clinical and scientific journals, his key mission remains improving care for those with cancer.
Medical Oncologist in Breast Cancer and Deputy Director of Medical Oncology at Austin Health in Melbourne.
Dr Belinda Yeo (FRACP, MD, MBBS, BA) is a Medical Oncologist in Breast Cancer and Deputy Director of Medical Oncology at Austin Health in Melbourne.
She is also a Clinician Scientist at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute. She trained in Sydney before joining the Breast Unit at The Royal Marsden Hospital, London as a Clinical and Research Fellow.
She completed a Master’s Degree at The University of London and The Institute of Cancer Research in novel genomic and non-molecular breast cancer risk assays.
She is co-lead of the VCCC Research and Education Stream for Breast Cancer, she is a clinical trial investigator and continues her translational research at the ONJ Centre investigating improving personalization and minimising toxicities for patients with breast cancer.
Associate Research Fellow with the Translational Health Research Institute (THRI), Western Sydney University.
Dr Rosalie Power's research focuses on inequities in health and wellbeing with marginalized groups including LGBTQI communities, people living with disabilities and migrant and refugee women.
Rosalie is a member of The Out with Cancer Study team, a 4 year Australian Research Council Funded Linkage project investigating LGBTQI experiences of cancer and cancer care from the perspective of LGBTQI people with cancer, their carers and healthcare professionals.
Using an integrated knowledge translation framework, the research aims to improve the cultural safety of care and support for this population.
Member of the Breast Cancer Trials Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP), and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011.
Karen has been a member of the Breast Cancer Trials Consumer Advisory Panel since 2017.
Karen was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in 2011 and has a BRCA1 gene mutation. Following her cancer diagnosis, genetic testing found the BRCA1 gene mutation present in her mother, both her aunts, her female cousins and in one of her male cousins.
Breast Surgeon with Northern Breast Care at the Mater Hospital, Sydney, and Clinical Fellow for Breast Cancer Trials.
Adam Ofri is a Breast Surgeon with Northern Breast Care at the Mater Hospital, Sydney. He has a strong interest in patient-tailored breast cancer management and has a passion for academia. He is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney and a Clinical Research Fellow at the RPA Institute of Academic Surgery. He is also the 2023 Clinical Fellow for Breast Cancer Trials. His research is focused on evaluating targeted axillary dissection in Australia and New Zealand, as well as designing a national RCT to evaluate DCISionRT.
Director of the Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories, Adelaide Medical School, and the University of Adelaide.
Professor Wayne Tilley is the Director of the Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories (DRMCRL), Adelaide Medical School, and the University of Adelaide (2002-current).
He is internationally recognized for research on sex steroid action in hormone-dependent cancers, with a particular focus on breast and prostate cancer. His career has spanned over 35 years in Australia, the USA and the UK. He cloned the human androgen receptor (AR) at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas in the late 1980s and subsequently showed that the AR is frequently mutated in prostate cancer, which led to a conceptually new understanding about progression of prostate cancer and the development of new drugs to target castration resistant prostate cancer.
In 2002, he was appointed the inaugural Director of the DRMCRL at the University of Adelaide. He has published 235 peer-reviewed papers. Seminal papers demonstrating that the progesterone receptor is a critical regulator of estrogen receptor-α (ER) activity in breast cancer (Nature 2015), and that the AR is a tumor suppressor in ER+ breast cancer, with clear guidelines for exploiting AR activation therapeutically (Nature Medicine 2021), led to clinical trials of PR and AR activation in ER-driven disease.
He is a former President of the Australian Society for Medical Research and was Chair of the National Breast Cancer Foundation Research Advisory Committee between 2003 and 2012. In recognition of his research excellence in the field of hormone-dependent cancers, in 2016 he received the Endocrine Society of Australia Senior Plenary Award and presented the opening plenary lecture at the International Congress of Endocrinology in Beijing.
He was Chair of the 2015 Gordon Research Conference on Hormone-Dependent Cancers, co-chair of the Fusion Nuclear Receptor meeting series and most recently, co-convened the 32 International Association of Breast Cancer Research (IABCR) meeting. He also convenes the International PacRim Breast and Prostate Cancer Meeting Series (2003-2023).
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor at Breast Cancer Trials 44th Annual Scientific Meeting, please email asm@bctrials.org.au.
The ASM Secretariat is responsible for conference registration only and delegates are responsible for their accommodation. You can book your accommodation at The Cordis Hotel, Auckland here.
Alternatively, there are several hotels within walking distance to The Cordis Hotel.