Dear Colleague,

 

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has newly reported that female breast cancer had become the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world, with an estimated 2.3 million new cases and 685 000 deaths occured in 2020.

Because of the importance of this oncological disease the Central-Eastern European Academy of Oncology (CEEAO) with the contribution of the National Institute of Oncology (NIO), Hungary, the Bács-Kiskun County Teaching Hospital and the Central Eastern European Breast Cancer Surgical Consortium (CEEBCSC) have initiated a Central-Eastern European professional consensus statement on breast cancer, summarizing the evidence based requirements on the diagnostics, multidicsiplinary treatment and rehabilitation of breast cancer, which should be endorsed by all the CEEAO member countries.

The basis of this professional regional consensus project was formed by the Consensus Statement of the 4th Hungarian Breast Cancer Consensus Conference accepted in August 2020, which was published in the peer reviewed journal, Hungarian Oncology (Magy. Onkol.) in December 2020.

The Organizing Committe of the breast cancer consensus project has kindly asked all the CEEAO member countries to establish National Professional Panels with the involvement of experts of the field of multidisciplinary breast cancer diagnosis, care and rehabilitation, which resulted in 20 National Panels with active participation. After having been translated the 4th Hungarian Breast Cancer Consensus Conference Statement to English and Russian languages, the draft consensus documents have been sent to each of the National Panels for professional update and comments, twice, after summarizing all the different suggestions and recomendations.

The updated draft consensus documents have been discussed by the Organizing Committee and now after months of preparation the Organizing Committee is happy to welcome You to the international hybrid conference on the

1^st Central-Eastern European Professional Consensus Statement on Breast Cancer to be able to accept a final statement by all the National Panels. The importance of this project is well symblolised by the main patron of the event, Professor Miklós Kásler, the Minister of Human Resources Hungary, representing the full support of the Hungarian Government.

The Organizing Committe of this regional oncological project strongly believes that this international multidisciplinary cooperation will facilitate the evidence based breast cancer care in the CEE region as well further evolution in senology, clinical cooperations and personal friendships.

Hereby we are looking foreward to Your active contribution as well we wish you a fruitful conference and a nice time at the wonderful venue of the World heritage city of Visegrád!

The Organizing Committee