This RRCR-conference-volume marks "number six" in a 20-year evolution of
international conferences on the adjuvant therapy of primary breast
cancer. Starting in 1978, a handful of some 80 en- thusiastic breast
cancer surgeons and oncologists, met in a se- cluded mountain resort
near st. Gallen in Eastern Switzerland, to exchange their early data of
some pioneer trials on adjuvant sys- temic therapy of early breast
cancer, and to correlate their future research efforts to overcome the
frustrating prognostic stagna- tion of this dominant neoplastic disease
in Western females dur- ing the past decades. Repeated every 3-4 years,
these St. Gallen International Conferences on Adjuvant Therapy of
Primary Breast Cancer have continuously grown in numbers of partici-
pants and in normative, therapeutic influence by being published in
major oncology journals [1-3], the last (6th) conference hav- ing
taken place from February 25-28, 1998 with more than 1800 attendees from
over 50 countries worldwide. What is the fascination of adjuvant therapy
in primary (early) breast cancer, and what has changed, during the last
3 years since March 1995, to justify another international gathering of
this size, and of the world's leading experts in the field? There is no
question, that providing even more effective care and designing
appropriate recommendations for the multitudes of patients with
so-called early breast cancer or at high risk of developing the disease,
remain highly important public health goals.