The 3rd Pacific Rim meeting on breast and prostate cancer: progress in hormonal carcinogenesis and the enduring influence of Ron Ross.

The 3rd Pacific Rim (‘‘PacRim’’) meeting on breast and prostate cancer on Fraser Island (Queensland, Australia) brought together a cast of international experts from October 31 to November 4, 2006. The meeting highlighted the current progress in breast and prostate cancer in the context of the enduring legacy of Ronald K. Ross in hormone-dependent cancer research. The overall thrust of this meeting, attended by almost 200 delegates, was to highlight the current advances and novel concepts in hormonal cancers. Meeting details including the full program can be found at the conference web site and a full list of meeting registrants is included in the online supplementary materials. The meeting also acknowledged the untimely passing of Ron Ross who was an active participant and coorganizer of the first two PacRim meetings. Furthermore, Ron Ross made seminal contributions to the epidemiology and molecular epidemiology of hormonal cancers, especially breast and prostate cancers. He coauthored more than 245 peer-reviewed articles, of which 18 alone were in this journal. Ron Ross’ research, hypotheses, generosity, and kindness influenced a number of investigators present at the 3rd PacRim meeting. Ron Ross was also an outstanding mentor of students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty. Further details on Ron Ross can be found at the University of Southern California web site. The Fraser Island meeting set out to identify the similarities and differences between breast and prostate cancer. Finally—and perhaps most importantly—this meeting focuses less on previously published data and more on novel and provocative concepts. Five overall themes emerged that cut across multiple disciplines, diseases, and sessions of the PacRim meeting: