Conference summary, Strategic Science symposium. Her-2/neu testing of breast cancer patients in clinical practice.

Practicing pathologists often encounter controversial clinical issues and nonstandardized laboratory approaches to the evolving science of predictive/prognostic tumor marker assays. This dilemma becomes especially acute when the assay is the sole determinant for selection of a specific therapy. To summarize the areas of practical agreement and identify opportunities for improvement in Her-2/neu testing of breast cancer. The College of American Pathologists created a new comprehensive education model, called Strategic Science, with expert speakers integrating new and evolving basic, clinical, and scientific issues of Her-2/neu testing with aspects of laboratory management. Symposium held May 4 and 5, 2002, in Rosemont, Ill. Ten speakers and more than 100 attendees. Components addressed were new technology assessment, practice guidelines, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, risk and liability, billing and coding, cost analysis, consultation, information management, and results reporting. This Strategic Science symposium derived areas of practical agreement, defined the current state-of-the-art, and identified areas for improvement in Her-2/neu testing.