The Menopause Society meeting to focus on oncology, precision medicine

Key takeaways:

• The Annual Meeting of The Menopause Society will take place Wednesday to Saturday in Philadelphia.
• The meeting will have a strong focus on precision medicine and screening and treating breast cancers.

The Annual Meeting of The Menopause Society will have a strong focus on the era of precision medicine in women’s health, especially in the realm of menopause and oncology.

“For hundreds of years, we have been doing a one-size-fits-all approach where all individuals get the same screening tests, the same dose of medication and the same treatment for their breast cancer, without very much understanding about the individual themselves and the individual biology of their specific breast cancer,” Lisa Larkin, MD, FACP, NCMP, IF, founder and CEO of Ms. Medicine, president-elect of The Menopause Society and scientific program chair of the Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, told Healio. “Now, science has moved into areas where we can do a much better job using specific genetic information.”

This year’s meeting will take place Wednesday to Saturday at the Marriott Downtown Hotel in Philadelphia. This will be the first meeting held following the name change from The North American Menopause Society to The Menopause Society. The new name more accurately reflects and highlights the inclusivity of providers in the organization, according to Stephanie Faubion, MD, MBA, medical director of The Menopause Society and director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Women’s Health, and the new logo signifies the organization’s position as the leading authority on menopause and menopause care.

“It was time to make sure that the organization better reflected its mission and vision for the future of empowering health care professionals and providing them with tools and resources that they needed to improve the health of women during the menopause transition and beyond,” Faubion, said. “We’ve always strived to be a definitive resource for health care professionals and the public for accurate, unbiased information about menopause and healthy aging.”

This year’s meeting will highlight studies from experts in clinical and basic sciences from different fields, such as medicine, nursing, sociology, psychology, nutrition, anthropology, epidemiology, pharmacy and education, and will cover multiple women’s health aspects, such as cardiovascular, bone, and mental and sexual health. The annual meeting will also offer two free courses: Menopause 101 and a pre-meeting course — Medical Breast and Genetics 101. These courses offer anyone interested in menopause a foundation in managing all aspects of menopause from vasomotor symptoms to urinary symptoms, mood, sexual function, and more, according to Faubion. The meeting will also have a new interactive case discussion testing knowledge to improve education surrounding women’s health.

An opening symposium will address precision oncology and viewpoints on advances in precision oncology care for women’s cancer. On Saturday, there will be a session focused on understanding specific features of dementia and what makes a woman more susceptible and information on genetics and individual variation in cognitive decline. Both Larkin and Faubion highlighted the importance of the Presidential Symposium, which will focus on the online world of misinformation and disinformation and how providers can give accurate information to patients.

The meeting will also have a new section, titled “Ask the Experts,” designed to help people dive into case-based management and answer some questions regarding how to work in such practices, Faubion said.

In addition, The Menopause Society meeting will have numerous sessions and data presented on fezolinetant (Veozah, Astellas Pharma), the first new class of medication since the 1940s for hot flashes associated with menopause.

“We are also on track to have one of the highest attendance rates that we’ve ever had at this meeting,” Faubion said. “This is going to be a hybrid meeting, but even the in-person attendance is as high or higher than we’ve ever had and that’s not even including online.”