The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium held annually in December is the biggest breast cancer science conference in the world. It is located in downtown San Antonio between the historic Alamo, the Tower of the Americas and the scenic Riverwalk.  Last year there were over 10,000 attendees including clinicians, basic scientists, students, and patient advocates. The conference runs over 4 days and includes twice daily poster sessions featuring thousands of research results with the poster authors on hand to present and answer questions themselves. Spotlight sessions and special short video presentations pepper each day. There is also a massive hall of exhibitors and advocacy organization booths. There is a patient advocate program that runs throughout with special advocate-focused sessions during the day and highlights of each day’s presentations shared in lay terms each evening. There is also a patient advocate lounge that offers free meals and snacks, monitors for watching some of the conference proceedings from afar, and an overall amazing networking space. 

LBCA supports patient advocates’ – new and seasoned – attendance at this conference by providing a travel scholarship program that includes a competitive application process. Successful applicants receive a significant portion of their travel costs reimbursed and in exchange agree to write about their experience at the conference to help inform others who have never attended. 

LBCA’s scholarship attendees’ write-ups vary from some that describe the specific research that struck them or particular sessions and presentations, and some that focus more on the overall experience of being there. Some include both. Some offer tips for others who may be contemplating attending their first conference, such as Kathleen whose write up includes suggestions on what to ask yourself when thinking about attending your first SABCS. She goes on to share “When I first signed up for the SABCS, I thought this would be a one-time experience for me—I’d go and see what there was to see, and hear what there was to hear, just this once. But I now have it as my goal to go back each year…”

You can read the full accounts by each of LBCA’s 5 scholars who attended SABCS23 below.