January 19, 2009 - The American Society of Breast Disease Pathfinder Lectures will honor Marie Overgaard, M.D., and Steve H. Parker, M.D. as part of the Society’s Annual Symposium, April 2-4, 2009, in Chicago, IL. In announcing the recipients of the Society’s only honorary recognition, American Society of Breast Disease president Julio A. Ibarra, M.D., noted that "through their vision and work this year’s honorees - Marie Overgaard and Steve H. Parker - have established new standards in diagnosis and treatment that have benefited the lives of millions of women around the world." Marie Overgaard, M.D., professor at Aarhus Hospital in Denmark, is the ASBD's 2009 Pathfinder Lecturer in Radiation Oncology. Her work in leading the large randomized trials of the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group dramatically reshaped the hypothesis of breast cancer as a systemic disease. Through her research, Dr. Overgaard showed that post-mastectomy radiation with chemotherapy in both pre- and post-menopausal women positively impacted survival. Her studies of postoperative radiotherapy have earned her recognition as an honorary fellow in the American College of Radiology and the Gold Medal Award of the American Society for Radiation Oncology. The honoree for the 2009 ASBD Pathfinder Lecturer in Radiology is interventional radiologist Steve H. Parker, M.D., who is well known in the field of breast diagnosis. Dr. Parker has been a pioneer in the development and study of minimally invasive biopsy. His innovations have included stereotactic-guided core biopsy, ultrasound-guided core biopsy, stereotactic-guided vacuum assisted biopsy (VAB), ultrasound-guided VAB, ultrasound-guided sentinel node core biopsy/VAB and ultrasound-guided percutaneous excision of masses. While serving at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, Dr. Parker developed the first use of image-guided percutaneous breast biopsy with a large-core needle. He was the principal author of a multi-institutional study showing that stereotactic and ultrasound large-core breast biopsy is as accurate as surgical biopsy. Dr. Parker further refined this technique by helping to develop additional minimally invasive tools, including VAB devices. Dr. Parker was the course director of the “Breast Imaging and Intervention in the 21st Century” international breast conference for 10 years and has lectured worldwide for the past two decades. Source: American Society of Breast Disease For more information: www.asbd.org
February 18, 2026 
