Category Archives: News

The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the largest Breast Cancer research
event in the world, will be held in San Antonio, Texas, from December 9th through 12th. Two of RadComp’s Stakeholder Advisory Members will serve as panelists for Educational Sessions. Please add them to your SABCS itinerary!

Carole Baas, PhD, will be a panelist for the
Educational Session 15: Real Impact with Artificial Intelligence.
Dr. Baas is a breast cancer survivor and National Advocate
for the Physical Sciences in Oncology of the National
Cancer Institute. The session will be held on for Thursday,
December 11, from 2:30 pm to 4:15 pm CT in Stars at
Night Ballroom 3-4 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.

Ivis Febus-Sampayo, will be a panelist for the Educational
Session 13: Optimizing Cardiac Outcomes in Breast Cancer—The Next Chapter.
Ms. Febus-Sampayo is a breast cancer survivor and
Retired Chief Officer of Diversity and Inclusion/Sr.
Director of Outreach at SHARE Cancer Support. The session
will be held on for Thursday, December 11th from
2:30 pm – 4:15 pm CT in Conference Room 221 ABC
at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.

Additional information regarding the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium:
Opening Plenary: Plenary lecture to explore how patients have become partners in scientific progress.
Why attend SABCS? Patient advocates grateful for life-changing community
SABCS 2025 to center patient perspectives throughout program

Dr. Shannon MacDonald, Co-Chair of the RadComp Study, presented Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) findings of RadComp participants who completed one-month and six-month post radiation therapy questionnaires at the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) on September 29th , in San Francisco.

RadComp is the first randomized study comparing photon therapy and proton therapy for breast cancer. Before and after receiving radiation therapy, RadComp participants completed questionnaires on such topics as physical, social, emotional and functional well-being, including cosmetic satisfaction. The results showed no significant differences in fatigue, satisfaction, or cosmetic outcomes between the two study arms.

“Patients should feel reassured that they can receive high-quality care with either photon or proton therapy,” said Shannon MacDonald, MD, FASTRO, clinical chair of the trial and medical director at the Southwest Florida Proton Center. “More than a thousand patients in our trial have now shown that, with contemporary treatments, we can deliver curative radiation in a way that preserves multiple aspects of quality of life.”

Dr. MacDonald concluded, “Health-related quality of life is a very important endpoint for our patients. In this trial, it was overall excellent and largely equivalent between the two treatment arms.”

The RadComp Study continues to follow participants to collect information on long-term outcomes, cancer control and major cardiovascular events, which are expected be reported in 2028 and 2032, respectively.

Reference: Data derived from MacDonald SM, et al. Abstract LBA 01. Presented at: ASTRO Annual Meeting; September 29, 2025; San Francisco.
Photo: ASTRO Daily News, September 30, 2025.

RadComp Stakeholder Advisory Committee member, Sharon Rivera-Sanchez, recently shared how participating in clinical trials inspired her to become a breast cancer advocate and start two non-profit organizations dedicated to supporting underserved cancer patients and bridging the gap between them, their providers, and clinical trials. In an article for BlackDoctor.org, Rivera-Sanchez outlined her treatment journey, and how clinical trials played an important role in her survival and in her founding of Saving Pennies 4 A Cure and Trials of Color. As Black patients make up only 5 percent of clinical trial participants despite them being disproportionately affected by cancer, she hopes that her story can inspire more Black patients to join clinical trials.