2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
Updates From Selected Clinical Trials in Breast Cancer
Each year, following the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), The ASCO Post asks Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, to offer his picks of the most important and most clinically relevant research present...
Prognostic Tool RSClin Introduced for Early Breast Cancer
Data from the TAILORx study and several National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) trials have been used to develop a new prognostic tool, RSClin, which aims to individualize the esti...
Expert Point of View: Shoshana Rosenberg, ScD, MPH
Shoshana Rosenberg, ScD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, weighed in on the implications of these findings. “The study underscor...
Meditation and Education Interventions May Improve Depressive Symptoms in Young Breast Cancer Survivors
A diagnosis of breast cancer and subsequent treatment may increase the risk of depression, especially among younger women with breast cancer. A new study showed that behavioral interventions—specifica...
Expert Point of View: William Gradishar, MD
William Gradishar, MD, the Betsy Bramsen Professor of Breast Oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Deputy Director for the Clinical Network of the Lurie Cancer Center, co...
Is Trop-2 Expression Associated With Benefit From Sacituzumab Govitecan-hziy?
The antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan-hziy (sacituzumab govitecan) is beneficial in previously treated patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, irrespective of Trop-2 expres...
Study Examines Pregnancy Outcomes in Breast Cancer Survivors
Breast cancer survivors of child-bearing age appear to have a more difficult time becoming pregnant than the general population, and when they do become pregnant, they have a higher risk of preterm la...
Expert Point of View: Neil M. Iyengar, MD
Neil M. Iyengar, MD, Assistant Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, has researched the links between breast cancer and lifestyle. He provided comments on these two ...
Can a High-Carbohydrate Diet Increase the Risk for Breast Cancer?
A growing body of evidence is showing a strong association between diet and breast cancer risk and survival, particularly high glycemic load and sugar intake. Two large population studies at the 2020 ...
Expert Point of View: Virginia Kaklamani, MD
Press conference moderator Virginia Kaklamani, MD, of UT Health San Antonio, and Leader of the Breast Cancer Program, UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, weighed in on this study. “This s...
Severity of Patients’ Symptoms May Be Underrecognized During and After Breast Radiotherapy
Physicians may commonly underrecognize radiation-associated symptoms and their severity compared with self-reports of patients with breast cancer, according to a large study comparing patient-reporte...
Expert Point of View: C. Kent Osborne, MD, and Ruth M. O’Regan, MD
Commentary for monarchE and PENELOPE-B was provided by C. Kent Osborne, MD, and Ruth M. O’Regan, MD, respectively. Dr. Osborne is Professor of Medicine, Hematology, and Oncology and the Dudley and Tin...
A Tale of Two CDK4/6 Inhibitors in Early Breast Cancer
The primary outcome analysis of the phase III monarchE trial, an update of previous data, continued to show significant benefit for abemaciclib in the adjuvant setting, reducing the risk for invasive ...
Ipatasertib Plus Paclitaxel Falters in Advanced Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Phase III Trial
The combination of ipatasertib plus paclitaxel failed to improve progression-free survival in PIK3CA/AKT1/PTEN-altered locally advanced, unresectable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, accor...
Expert Point of View: Yuan Yuan, MD, PhD
Yuan Yuan, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at City of Hope, Duarte, California, said that this was yet another failed phase III trial following promising phase II data. “Entinostat was granted Fast Trac...
Adding Entinostat to Exemestane Fails to Overcome Aromatase Inhibitor Resistance in Advanced Breast Cancer
The histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDAC) entinostat, added to exemestane, failed to overcome endocrine therapy resistance in advanced breast cancer, according to the E2112 phase III trial conducted by...
Expert Point of View: Hatem Soliman, MD
“The updated long-term follow-up from IBIS II showed that tamoxifen and anastrozole have similar efficacy in preventing breast cancer recurrences in patients diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ. ...
KEYNOTE-355: Pembrolizumab Plus Chemotherapy Improves Progression-Free Survival in PD-L1–Enriched Advanced Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy improved progression-free survival vs chemotherapy alone as first-line treatment of advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, according to the results of KE...
Anastrozole vs Tamoxifen to Prevent DCIS Recurrence: Key Difference May Be Side-Effect Profile
If your patient were an older woman opting for hormonal therapy after surgically excised ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which hormonal agent would you recommend for the prevention of disease recurr...
Expert Point of View: William Gradishar, MD
Thoughts on oral taxanes—and in particular, tesetaxel—were provided by William Gradishar, MD, the Betsy Bramsen Professor of Breast Oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and ...
Oral Taxanes Moving Forward in Metastatic Breast Cancer
Positive results have now been reported in phase III trials of two oral taxanes in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. At the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, treatment with tesetaxel ...
Expert Point of View: Cristina Saura Manich, MD, PhD
Study discussant Cristina Saura Manich, MD, PhD, Head of the Breast Cancer Program at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, offered some thoughts as to the underlying mechanism of benefi...
Unexpected Survival Benefit Reported With Trilaciclib in Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
The intravenous administration of trilaciclib, the first-in-class reversible inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6), given with chemotherapy, led to a significant improvement in overall sur...
Can Postoperative Whole-Breast Irradiation Be Safely Omitted in Older Women With Low-Risk Breast Cancer?
Omitting postoperative radiotherapy with whole-breast irradiation may not compromise 10-year overall survival or increase the risk of developing metastasis in most women 65 years and older with low-ri...
Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, on ER+, HER2– Breast Cancer: More Effective Treatments Needed
Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses results from the ALTERNATE trial on response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in postmenopausal women with clinical stage II or III est...
Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, on Her Plenary Lecture: Local Regional Management Following Neoadjuvant Therapy
Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, summarizes her plenary talk, which featured the uncertainties in treatment knowledge: excision of postchemotherapy calcifications; th...
CTC Enumeration Predicts Survival Early in Treatment of Metastatic Breast Cancer
The number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) assessed at baseline and at about 1 month after cancer-directed treatment was strongly associated with overall survival in patients with metastatic breast ...
RxPONDER: Many Postmenopausal Patients With Node-Positive Breast Cancer Can Avoid Chemotherapy
Just in are the results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial, which evaluated the benefit of chemotherapy in women with early-stage hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer and node-positiv...
Sibylle Loibl, MD, on HR+ HER2– Primary Breast Cancer: Palbociclib and Endocrine Therapy
Sibylle Loibl, MD, of the German Breast Group, discusses the first phase III results from the PENELOPE-B study of palbociclib combined with endocrine therapy in patients with hormone receptor–positive...
Joyce V. Lee, PhD, on Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: MYC as a Predictor of Treatment Response
Joyce V. Lee, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco, discusses data that suggest the MYC oncogene may indicate whether a patient with triple-negative breast cancer will respond to immuno...
Roisin M. Connolly, MD, on HR+ Advanced Breast Cancer: Endocrine Therapy and Entinostat
Roisin M. Connolly, MD, of University College Cork, discusses phase III results from the E2112 trial, which showed exemestane plus entinostat did not improve survival in aromatase inhibitor–resistant ...
Lee S. Schwartzberg, MD, on HER2– HR+ Breast Cancer: Tesetaxel and Capecitabine
Lee S. Schwartzberg, MD, of the West Cancer Center, discusses phase III results from the CONTESSA study, which showed that an all-oral regimen of tesetaxel plus a reduced dose of capecitabine signific...
Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, on Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Sacituzumab Govitecan and Chemotherapy
Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, discusses phase III data from the ASCENT study of the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan vs chemotherapy in patients wit...
Patricia A. Ganz, MD, on Younger Breast Cancer Survivors: Managing Depression
Patricia A. Ganz, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses study findings that showed mindfulness meditation and survivorship education may effectively reduce depression and related...
Joseph A. Sparano, MD, on HR+, HER2– Breast Cancer: Individualizing Prognosis and Predicting Treatment Success
Joseph A. Sparano, MD, of the Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, discusses the development and validation of a tool that integrates the 21-gene recurrence score and cli...
Nadia Harbeck, MD, on Early Breast Cancer: Endocrine Therapy After Preoperative Treatment
Nadia Harbeck, MD, of the University of Munich, discusses the first outcome data from the phase III ADAPT HR+/HER– trial, which combined both static and dynamic biomarkers to optimize the adjuvant the...
SABCS 2020: CTC Enumeration May Be Predictive of Survival During Treatment for Metastatic Breast Cancer
The number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) assessed at baseline and about 1 month after cancer-directed treatment was associated with overall survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer, acco...
SABCS 2020: Patient-Reported Outcomes From the Phase III IMpassion031 Trial
Adding an immune checkpoint inhibitor to a standard chemotherapy regimen for patients with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer did not affect patients’ ability to perform day-to-day activities m...
SABCS 2020: New Prognostic Tool to Determine Individual Risk of Distant Recurrence, Benefit of Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Early Breast Cancer
In a study presented at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract GS4-10) and concurrently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Joseph A. Sparano, MD, and colleagues described t...
SABCS 2020: RxPONDER Study Shows Postmenopausal Patients With Node-Positive Breast Cancer May Be Able to Avoid Chemotherapy
Just in are the results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial, which evaluated the benefit of chemotherapy in women with early-stage, hormone receptor (HR)-positive, node-positive breast cancer. Based on t...
SABCS 2020: Follow-up Data From monarchE Show Continued Abemaciclib Benefit in High-Risk, HR-Positive, HER2-Negative Breast Cancer
Extended follow-up results from the phase III monarchE trial showed that adding the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor abemaciclib to standard adjuvant endocrine therapy continued to improve invasive d...
SABCS 2020: Can Mindfulness Meditation and Survivorship Education Help to Reduce Depression in Young Breast Cancer Survivors?
New research showed that behavioral interventions—mindfulness meditation and survivorship education classes—may be effective in reducing depressive symptoms in younger breast cancer survivors. This pa...
Debra A. Pratt, MD, on Time to Completion of Breast Cancer Treatment and Survival
In her recent study, Debra A. Pratt, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, showed that when breast cancer treatment using any of three modalities takes longer than 38 weeks, it is associated with a decrease in...
Chirag Shah, MD, on Assessing DCIS Recurrence Risk
Chirag Shah, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, discusses the impact of DCISionRT testing on radiation therapy recommendations for patients with ductal carcinoma in situ following lumpectomy. His study foun...
SABCS 2020: Patients With Breast Cancer Undergoing Radiotherapy May Have Underrecognized Side Effects
Among patients with breast cancer treated with radiotherapy, symptoms were commonly underrecognized in reports of pain, pruritus, edema, and fatigue, with younger patients and Black patients having si...
SABCS 2020: Opioid and Sedative-Hypnotic Use After Mastectomy With Reconstructive Surgery
Women who undergo mastectomy with reconstructive surgery as part of breast cancer treatment may face the risk of persistent use of opioids and sedative-hypnotic drugs, according to data presented by J...
SABCS 2020: Meta-analysis of Pregnancy Outcomes in Breast Cancer Survivors
A large meta-analysis of breast cancer survivors of childbearing age indicated that they are less likely than the general public to become pregnant and may face a higher risk of certain complications,...
SABCS 2020: Radiotherapy Omission After Breast-Conserving Surgery for Older Patients With HR-Positive Breast Cancer
Patients aged 65 or older with hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer who did not receive radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery had higher rates of local recurrence but similar 10-ye...
