This online course provides a review of the epidemiology and risk factors, screening and treatment of breast cancer. Participants will review four cases from initial presentation for a routine visit to their general internists to screening to work-up and treatment.

NUMBER OF CREDIT HOURS: The Harvard Medical School designates this educational activity for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

COST: $40.00
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OVERALL LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

1. Review risk factors, work-up, staging, management and surveillance of breast cancer.

CLINICAL LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

1. Review work-up and management of abnormal breast finding.
2. Review risk factors for breast cancer and prevention strategies for patients at high-risk for breast cancer.
3. Review staging for patients with breast cancer.
4. Review treatment options for patients with breast cancer, depending on estrogen, progesterone and Her2-neu receptor status and stage of disease.
5. Review side effects of breast cancer treatment and surveillance of breast cancer survivors.

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STEVEN COME, MD Course Director

Dr. Come is Medical Director of the Breast Cancer Program and Director of the Hematology-Oncology Ambulatory Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Breast Cancer program and the Breast SPORE at the Harvard/Dana Farber Cancer Center. Dr. Come received his MD at Harvard and served as intern, resident, and chief resident in medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He was a Clinical Associate in the Medicine Branch of the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Come’s research interests include the integration of therapies for early breast cancer and optimizing endocrine therapy for this disease. He is presently focussing on the development of new hormonal and biologic agents, cross talk between endocrine and growth factor pathways, and presurgical models to better evaluate breast cancer biology. He has been a principal and co-investigator on numerous Harvard, industry-sponsored, and cooperative group trials. DISCLOSURE: Company: Astra Zeneca; Novartis; Pfizer Type of Relationship: Research Funding Consultant; Consultant; Consultant

ZSOFIA K. STADLER, MD Course Contributor

Dr. Stadler is a graduate of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and has completed the Clinical Effectiveness Program at the Harvard School of Public Health. She received her internal medicine training at Brigham and Women's Hospital and subsequently completed her hematology/oncology fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Her research interests focus on the identification, genetic evaluation and medical management of patients with a hereditary predisposition to cancer. DISCLOSURE:

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STEPHEN A. CANNISTRA, MD Reviewer

Dr. Cannistra is the Director of Gynecologic Medical Oncology and is an accomplished scholar in gynecologic malignancies, with a national and international reputation in the field of ovarian cancer. His group’s research efforts focus on the development of novel approaches to the treatment of newly diagnosed and relapsed ovarian cancer. Several investigator-initiated trials have already been developed in his program, including the use of an oral VEGF-R inhibitor for treatment of marker-only relapse, as well as consolidation approaches using oral topotecan in patients who have achieved complete clinical remission. Current clinical trials are designed to target the angiogenic pathway, using bevacizumab in combination with first-line chemotherapy, or as a single agent in relapsed disease. More recently, his group was the first to identify a microarray gene expression profile, referred to as the OCPP, that has powerful and independent prognostic value in ovarian cancer. His group's ongoing work in this area has revealed other gene expression patterns which are predictive of response to chemotherapy, as defined by the results of second-look laparoscopies. This work is made possible through the use of a large ovarian cancer tissue bank and correlative clinical database that Dr. Cannistra has developed over the past decade. Dr. Cannistra is a co-Principal Investigator on the DF/HCC Ovarian Cancer SPORE, serves as an Associate Editor and Medical Science Consulting Editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and has served as program chair for the Gynecologic Cancer Committee of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). He also serves on the Program Committee of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists and is media spokesperson for ASCO in the fields of tumor biology and gynecologic malignancies. DISCLOSURE:

ERICA L. MAYER, MD Reviewer

Dr. Mayer is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. She completed internal medicine and medical oncology training at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she is currently a staff physician in the Breast Oncology Center. Dr. Mayer is also an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and is an active clinical researcher, designing and overseeing local and national trials evaluating the role of novel agents in the treatment of breast cancer. DISCLOSURE:

LOWELL E. SCHNIPPER, MD Reviewer

Bio and Photo Coming Soon. DISCLOSURE:

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NUMBER OF CREDITS: 2 

Harvard Medical School is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The Harvard Medical School designates this educational activity for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Upon completion of the course you will get a certificate via e-mail within 2 weeks.

Click the image to view a sample of the certificate

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