Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures, which can yield unprecedented outcomes. Just weeks prior to what was planned to be an in-person meeting, the COVID-19 pandemic did not allow the 22nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) to take place safely in person in Las Vegas, Nevada for a second year in a row. The Board of the ASBrS made the prudent decision to change the meeting from an in-person to a virtual platform, prioritizing the safety of its members, staff, and faculty, while fulfilling the society’s mission to educate its membership and keep it connected, something greatly needed in socially distant times. The desire to connect and acquire new knowledge was evidenced by this year’s highest record of meeting attendees in its 22-year history, with 1715 registrants present from 39 countries. This year’s meeting offered a whole new event experience, while bringing the same energy, spirit, and collaboration consistent with all the Society’s annual meetings. In addition, the virtual meeting platform continues to allow individuals to register and have access to all of the recorded presentations and to the 2021 Extended Annual Meeting Series being given through December 2021.

General Session Highlights

The theme of this year’s meeting was delivering value-based care with a patient-centered approach, covering topics such as timing of neoadjuvant therapy, axillary surgery decisions, deescalation of therapy, and multimodality treatment of inflammatory breast cancer. The Great Debates included clipping axillary lymph nodes, postmastectomy radiation therapy in T1/2N1 disease, and routine sentinel node biopsy in post-menopausal ER+/HER2—disease.1,2 Dr. Jill Dietz delivered an excellent Presidential Address on the impact of COVID-19 on patients, medical providers, and healthcare, the Society’s role in guiding breast cancer care around the world through collaboration, and the lessons we have learned that will affect the value, care and patient outcomes in the future.3 The ASBrS Lifetime Achievement Award, deferred from last year, was presented to Dr. David P. Winchester by his son, Dr. David J. Winchester.

With an emphasis on patient-centered care, the highlight of the meeting was the Keynote Address, “It’s the Little Things That Matter,” masterfully delivered by UK breast surgeon, author, and TED talk speaker Liz O’Riordan, FRCS, PhD, PG Dip.4 Dr. O’Riordan was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer in 2015 at the age of 40 years, started an award-winning blog about her experiences as a doctor and a patient, which led to her lecturing internationally about how to improve the quality of patient care, before being diagnosed with a chest wall recurrence in 2018. Her compelling keynote speech (available for view on the ASBrS website to members and nonmembers) highlights the three critical things that all healthcare providers should address when caring for their cancer patients to make a massive impact on their care. Her Keynote Address is practice-changing.

Finally, we look forward to continuing education with critical topics such as pain management, lymphedema, sexual dysfunction, infertility, and patient and physician wellness, to name a few, which will be covered in the 2021 Extended Annual Meeting Series.

Oral and Scientific Session Highlights

This year’s focus was on the latest science, innovations, and practice-changing information for breast surgeons. There were creative learning opportunities, lively debates, two new very well-attended virtual trainee poster discussion sessions, and the latest updates in our field. This historic past year and a half renewed our commitment to helping attendees elevate standard practice by improving the efficacy, safety, and quality of breast care for our patients and sharing the best of these advancements in this year’s breast issue of the Annals of Surgical Oncology.

This year, the George Peter’s Award for the best presentation by a fellow went to Dr. Leisha Elmore from MD Anderson Cancer Center for her work on the contemporary incidence and survival clinical impact of local regional progression during neoadjuvant systemic therapy.5 The annual Outstanding Scientific Presentation Award for the best abstract presented by a resident, medical trainee, or fellow went to Dr. Ayat ElSherif from the Cleveland Clinic for her work on antibiotic prophylaxis for nipple-sparing mastectomy with immediate breast reconstruction.6 The Scientific Impact Award went to Dr. David Lim from the Toronto Women’s College Research Institute on the relationship between the breast tumor pathologic response to neoadjuvant systemic therapy and axillary nodal response.7

Much gratitude is given to the 31 members of the Publication Committee for careful blinded review (to both authors and institutional source) of 220 research abstracts for selection of the top studies for oral scientific, “quick-shot,” and poster-discussion presentations, and for the final review and selection of the highest impact publications for this issue of Annals of Surgical Oncology. Just some of the highlighted research studies published in this issue of Annals of Surgical Oncology include important work regarding post-operative pain management,8 understanding current axillary management,9,10 potential new methods for decreasing surgery for margin control,11 inflammatory breast cancer,12 cryoablation without surgery for early invasive breast cancer,13 and how the COVID-19 pandemic has altered practice among our society members.14 These and other ASBrS articles published in this issue15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38 provide current research results germane to today’s delivery of high-quality breast cancer care.