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IntroductionThe majority of breast cancer patients from India usually present with advanced disease, limiting the scope of breast conservation surgery. Therapeutic mammoplasty (TM), an oncoplastic technique that permits larger excisions, is quite promising in such a scenario and well suited to breast cancer in medium-to-large-sized breasts with ptosis and in some cases of large or multifocal/multicentric tumors. Here, we describe our TM cohort of 205 (194 malignant and 11 benign) patients from 2012 to 2019 treated at a single surgeon center in India, the largest Asian dataset for TM.MethodsAll patients underwent treatment after careful discussions by a multidisciplinary tumor board and patient counseling. We report the clinicopathological profiles and surgical, oncological, cosmetic, and patient-related outcomes with different TM procedures.ResultsThe median age of breast cancer patients was 49 years; that of benign disease patients was 41 years. The breast cancer cohort underwent simple (n = 84), complex (n = 71), or extreme (n = 44) TM surgeries. All resection margins were analyzed through intra-operative frozen-section assessment with stringent rad-path analysis protocols. The margin positivity rate was found to be 1.4%. A majority of the cohort was observed to have pT1–pT2 tumors, and the median resection volume was 180 cc. Low post-operative complication rates and good-to-excellent cosmetic scores were observed. The median follow-up was 39 months. We observed 2.07% local and 5.7% distal recurrences, and disease-specific mortality was 3.1%. At median follow-up, the overall survival was observed to be 95.9%, and disease-free survival was found to be 92.2%. The patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) showed good-to-excellent scores for all types of TMs across BREAST-Q domains.ConclusionWe conclude that in India, a country where women present with large and locally advanced tumors, TM safely expands the indications for breast conservation surgery. Our results show oncological and cosmetic outcomes at acceptable levels. Most importantly, PROM scores suggest improved overall wellbeing and better satisfaction with the quality of life. For patients with macromastia, this technique not only focuses on cancer but also improves self-image and reduces associated physical discomfort often overlooked by women in the Indian setting. The popularization of this procedure will enable Indian patients with breast cancer to receive the benefits of breast conservation.

On January 13th and 14th 2022, the Center for Translational Cancer Research organized the virtual third Indian Cancer Genome Atlas (ICGA) Conference 2022 “Biobanking to Omics – Collecting the Global Experience.” This conference was planned as the steppingstone to help ICGA understand the road ahead and the probable roadblocks in its preparatory phase as ICGA begins to streamline the tumor tissue biobanking and multi‐omics efforts in the Indian subcontinent. The first day of the conference was dedicated to updates on the current status of ICGA, the future prospect, and the global understanding of multi‐omics efforts. The key highlights included two keynote speeches by Dr Wui Jin Koh, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Office, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and by Dr Christina Curtis, Associate Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine. The first day ended with an intriguing panel discussion on “ICGA updates and Future Steps.” The second day focused on biobanking practices across the globe and several aspects of biobank setup such as infrastructure, maintenance, quality control, patient consent, and lessons learned from established biobanking setups. The talk by Rosita Kammler, Head, Translational Research Coordination, International Breast Cancer Study Group, Switzerland, and Ruhul Amin, Director, Bangladesh Medical Research Council were the key highlights. The second day also ended with an engaging panel discussion on “Tumor tissue biobanking – national and international perspectives.” Overall, the conference was well received and had good attendance from national and international students, researchers, and faculty from academia as well as industry.