San Antonio – there is a lot of exciting new data at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) this week.

As Sally Church pointed out in her SABCS video on Pharma Strategy Blog, the update to the BOLERO2 data  (previously presented by Jose Baselga at ECCO/ESMO 2011 in September) will be presented later this morning at SABCS.

As a side note it is worth noting that the NEJM paper published yesterday contains the Stockholm data, not the updated data that will be presented later today that will show further improvement in progression free survival (as compared to placebo) in post menopausal ER+ HER2- women who took everolimus combined with exemestane.

Despite the presentation of exciting data at SABCS this week, my opinion is that this is a good meeting, but not a great one (yet). The reason is not the quality of the science being presented this week, but the lack of quality discussants.

The unheralded discussant is the expert that puts the science in context for the audience. Whether it’s a discussion of a simple poster or of a plenary session, the discussants play an important role.

Yesterday at SABCS I sat through two general sessions (the equivalent of plenary sessions at other meetings) in the cavern like auditorium that I estimate sits two thousand attendees.

Of the 15 presentations, only the 3 on bisphosphonates were given a discussant. That is why this meeting to me is good, but not great.  Both ASCO and ESMO/ECCO do a much better job at having a expert put the data in context in an independent and unbiased review.

Why is a discussant important when it’s all about the scientific data?

The challenge with medicine, law and any other professions is that there is so much new data that we can only be experts in a very small area or subset of knowledge.

At SABCS there are basic scientists, medical students, researchers, oncologists, community physicians, patient advocates and survivors. What does the data presented mean to them?

The discussant looks at many aspects of a presentation and can be critical, positive and negative in their observations about:

  • Clinical Trial Design:  what were the limitations?
  • Results:  did it meet the endpoints, was the data significant?
  • Adverse events: is the AE profile a concern?
  • Comparison to literature:  how does this data compare to the literature?
  • Future research:  does this data suggest rational future trials or research?
  • Practice implications:  does the data impact the standard of care?

There are many more questions that come to mind.  Listening to a good discussant brings science to life.

It is, however, challenging being a discussant because like writing a blog, you are generating original content and expressing an opinion.

My view is that if a presentation is good enough to receive an oral presentation at a major meeting, then it’s good enough to be discussed.  I hope that SABCS will offer more discussants in future years and make this a great scientific meeting in return.

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