Advances in Breast Cancer Research: Insights from SABCS 2024

The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) is one of the world’s largest and most significant conferences focusing on breast cancer clinical research and patient care. The annual meeting which took place on December 10–14, 2024, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, United States, featured the latest data from clinical trials, with emphasis on precision medicine, treatment de-escalation and novel therapeutic strategies to improve clinical outcomes and quality of life in patients with breast cancer. This review highlights the most important studies presented at the SABCS 2024. The EMBER-3 trial demonstrated the potential of imlunestrant, an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD), for _ESR1_-mutated estrogen receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-) advanced breast cancer, whereas the PHILA trial validated the efficacy of pyrotinib-based therapy for HER2-positive (HER2+) metastatic disease. De-escalation strategies were supported by the INSEMA trial, proving that axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) can be safely omitted in certain patients with early breast cancer. Innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence-powered mammography analysis have demonstrated significant progress in risk prediction for targeted breast cancer prevention. The CamRelief and FASCINATE-N trials demonstrated the potential of immunotherapy and HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugates in the treatment of triple-negative and HER2+ breast cancer, respectively. The PADMA trial further reinforced the role of endocrine therapy (ET) with cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) inhibitors as first-line treatment for hormone receptor-positive/HER2- metastatic breast cancer. Collectively, this body of research demonstrates the critical importance of personalized and evidence-based strategies in breast cancer care. PEER REVIEWED ARTICLE Peer reviewers: Two anonymous peer reviewers Received on December 15, 2024; accepted after peer review on December 27, 2024; published online on December 30, 2024.