Debate has always been a healthy part of the discovery process. Debates can also be pretty entertaining. For the third consecutive year, an Oxford-style debate is on the program for the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium^® (SABCS^®) Dec. 10-14.

Lawrence B. Marks, MD, FASTRO of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina will debate Alastair M. Thompson, ALCM, BSc (Hons), MBChB, MD, FRCSEd (Gen) of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. The topic: “Mastectomy should not be offered to patients who are breast conservation candidates when modern radiotherapy is available.” Richard Crownover, MD, PhD of UT Health San Antonio will moderate.

The debates were added to the program because they are clinically relevant and also fun, according to SABCS Co-Director Virginia Kaklamani, MD, professor of medicine at UT Health San Antonio.

“They’re done in a fun way so that the two people that are reviewing the topics are kind of competing against each other and the audience is participating in the competition,” Kaklamani has said of previous debates.

In an Oxford-style debate, the audience is polled regarding its position on the topic. They are polled again at the end of the debate to see which participant was most persuasive in their arguments.

The debate will be in Hall 3 at 9 a.m., Friday, Dec. 13.

Visit the following link for the complete #SABCS19 schedule. Registration for the symposium is open through Nov. 22. Visit sabcs.org to register today.