AACR 2025: key breast cancer presentations
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) held their Annual Meeting in Chicago (IL, USA) on 25–30 April 2025. Centered around the theme “Unifying cancer science and medicine: A continuum of innovation for impact”, the meeting was jam-packed with presentations about cancer research from the bench to the clinic. To help you navigate this expansive event, we’ve selected key breast cancer presentations.
Educational session: Predictive biomarkers of response to (neo)adjuvant treatment in breast cancer: what’s new? Dedicated to the memory of V. Craig Jordan
Novel HER2 classification and a summary or predictors to anti-HER2 therapies
Molecular and cellular biomarkers of response to chemo/immunotherapy in early-stage TNBC
This educational session explored recent advancements in breast cancer research, with a focus on therapy response predictors. Two key talks of interest from this session were “Novel HER2 classification and a summary or predictors to anti-HER2 therapies”, presented by Christos Sotiriou (Institute Jules Bordet, Brussels, Belgium), and “Molecular and cellular biomarkers of response to chemo/immunotherapy in early-stage TNBC”, presented by Giampaolo Bianchini (IRCSS; Milan, Italy).
In his talk, Sotiriou discussed novel HER2 classification, summarizing emerging classifications and key predictors of response to anti-HER2 therapies while highlighting their impact on treatment strategies. Bianchini presented on the molecular and cellular biomarkers of response to chemotherapy and immunotherapy in early-stage TNBC, providing insights into how these biomarkers can optimize treatment selection and improve patient outcomes.
Educational Session: Molecular imaging for drug development and as a biomarker for treatment decisions
Molecular imaging to direct cancer treatment in the clinic: Breast cancer example
This educational session focused on using molecular imaging as a biomarker for targeted cancer therapy, in both drug development and clinical practice. Within this educational session, Farrokh Dehdashti (Washington University; MO, USA) discussed molecular imaging biomarker methods that are being used in the clinic, focusing on molecular biomarker-based approaches in breast cancer. Dehdashti highlighted how these approaches can be used as a predictive marker, for response assessment and to guide the development of treatment drugs that have recently been approved.
Read key news stories from the AACR 2025 Annual Meeting (25–30 April 2025, IL, USA), highlighting the latest advancements and discoveries in cancer research and treatment.
Major Symposium: Cancer research at a crossroads: sustaining progress against cancer for the benefit of patients
While not specifically focused on breast cancer, this timely session examined the impacts that recent federal actions and policy proposals could have on the future of cancer research and patient care. Panelists, including respected voices from scientific, policy and patient advocacy communities, discussed the adverse consequences, disruption to scientific careers and lack of patient access to new treatments. This session also highlighted what should be done to protect scientific progress and improve patient care.
Major symposium: Anti-cancer treatments at the interface of surgical and medical oncology
Harnessing the neoadjuvant window: Immunotherapy in breast cancer
The majority of patients with solid tumors typically receive a combination of surgical and medical therapy. But now, in the age of personalized molecular-based therapeutics, ideas of enhancing the responses of medical treatments using surgical treatments are starting to emerge. This session, including a presentation by Elizabeth A. Mittendorf (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; MA, USA) on immunotherapy in breast cancer, discussed how combinations of neoadjuvant therapies or immunotherapies together with novel or traditional surgical approaches can be used to therapeutically alter the tumor microenvironment and induce immunogenic tumor cell stress, shedding light on new opportunities for improving cancer control at both the local and systemic level.
Plenary session: Opportunities in predictive oncology
Breast cancer dynamics in predicting response to immunotherapy.
This plenary session will explore methodologies that shape our ability to predict and personalize cancer treatment. Included in this plenary session is a presentation by Marleen Kok (Netherlands Cancer Institute; Amsterdam) exploring how integrating multimodal approaches can advance our understanding and clinical application of immunotherapy response prediction, using inflammatory breast cancer as an example to illustrate how tumor dynamics can significantly influence patient outcomes.
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