Earlier this year, the organizers of one of San Antonio’s largest annual conferences still were hopeful that at least part of the event could be held in person.
The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium draws thousands of physicians, researchers and academics from across the globe to the Convention Center each December for discussions and presentations on the specialty’s most cutting-edge research. This year, its 8,000-plus attendees were projected to book 21,100 hotel room nights and generate an estimated $14.1 million in economic revenue, according to Visit San Antonio.
But this summer, as the coronavirus surged across San Antonio, sickening tens of thousands of people, it became increasingly clear that there was no safe way to host a multiday indoor event with thousands of people. It would be the perfect environment for the virus to spread, and many of the physicians who would normally attend were restricted by their institutions from traveling because of the pandemic.
So, for the first time in its 43-year history, SABCS will go completely virtual.
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“This is going to be an interesting year,” said Dr. Virginia Kaklamani, SABCS co-director and head of the breast disease program at the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio, one of the symposium’s main sponsors.
SABCS, which is scheduled for Dec. 8-12, typically holds a combination of lectures, educational sessions, workshops, research presentations and career development opportunities across the Convention Center.
In moving all that programming online, the challenge will be making the events as interactive as possible, Kaklamani said, something other major medical conferences have struggled to do. Out of necessity, many of the talks will be prerecorded to ensure the event is not bogged down with technical glitches.
However, organizers are focusing much of their efforts on enabling some version of the questions, discussions and debates that normally are a feature of SABCS.
Sessions will occur in multiple channels, and moderators will sort through submitted questions, said Dr. Ruben Mesa, director of the Mays Cancer Center. The sessions will be archived and uploaded online.
Some of the programming will focus on the intersection between cancer and COVID-19, which poses a heightened risk to current and future cancer patients. Early research indicates that COVID increases mortality rates in active cancer patients, Mesa said, particularly those undergoing chemotherapy.
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The pandemic also has disrupted screenings and other types of preventative care that can identify cancers at earlier stages. Cancer diagnoses are down this year, Mesa said, a worrisome trend. Some cancers, including those that form in the breast, can be so aggressive that even a delay of weeks makes a difference.
“It’s a huge concern that we’re going to really see many more individuals pass away from cancer, from potentially curable cancers that were caught late because of fear of COVID,” he said.
Based on other medical conferences that have taken place this year, Mesa and Kaklamani are hopeful that attendance at this year’s SABCS could be higher, perhaps significantly so, as it will be accessible to more people online than it would be in person. It also will be more cost effective — registration fees have been reduced by 75 percent.
This year’s conference ultimately could be more difficult to plan than a live event, Kaklamani said. Still, there was no scenario in which it would be canceled altogether.
“It is the largest and most impactful breast cancer-focused conference in the world,” Mesa said. “Doctors attend this and hear updates from it that impact the care that they’re delivering to their patients that very week.”
Lauren Caruba covers health care and medicine in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Lauren, become a subscriber. lcaruba@express-news.net | Twitter: @LaurenCaruba
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September 07, 2020 at 06:00PM
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Breast cancer symposium, one of San Antonio’s largest annual conferences, to go virtual due to coronavirus - San Antonio Express-News
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