Department of Defense Era of Hope meeting, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25-28 September 2002.

ABSTRACT

The Era of Hope meeting addressed with a multidisciplinary approach the most critical issues in breast carcinogenesis. The issues that we summarize here include a) the use of rodent models for the study of mammary gland development and breast tumorigenesis; b) the effects of stroma on mammary epithelial differentiation and malignant transformation; c) a further characterization of the interactions between steroid and growth factor receptors; d) the improvement of technologies for early detection of breast tumors and the establishment of their progression; and e) the development of vaccines as potential new therapies against specific tumor markers.