Promising New Developments on the Breast Cancer Front

The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 9-13, brought mostly good news for breast cancer patients and drugmakers. And that's a welcome development: Aside from non-melanoma skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women and the second-leading cause of cancer death in women. Estimates for 2009 put the number of new cases at over 192,000 women and nearly 2,000 men, with over 40,000 deaths in women and 440 in men, according to the American Cancer Society. Here's a wrapup of significant reports from the symposium.