The term “late-breaking” refers to news that is deemed important enough for immediate dissemination. This can be as simple as a breaking story about a celebrity’s new relationship, as it could be as serious as the results of a medical study that has been published in a major journal.
The purpose of the late-breaking deadline is to provide a way for authors who are conducting highly relevant and potentially practice-changing research to present their work at the Congress if it will not be available by the standard abstract submission deadline. It is important to note that a submitted late-breaking abstract cannot be a revision of an abstract submitted by the regular deadline. Only a small number of late-breaking abstracts will be selected for oral presentation at the meeting.
In order to be considered for the late-breaking category, an abstract must describe a clinical trial with original investigational data that are NOT available by the abstract submission deadline. Please be sure to include a statement (on the Questionnaire submission page) explaining why your research could not be completed by the early deadline.
The submitting author must be an ASTS member (first or last author). To ensure that the appropriate author fee is charged, authors should log into the ASTS Abstract Submission system with the email address associated with their first or last author membership account. In addition, a $25 processing fee is required for each late-breaking abstract that is submitted.