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Modern, multimodality lumpectomy treatment significantly reduces the incidence of breast cancer recurrence at the original tumor site compared to historical protocols, according to a new study presented at the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) 19th Annual Meeting (Abstract...
Current restrictive genetic testing guidelines exclude many patients who harbor high-risk breast cancer mutations, according to two new studies presented at the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) 19th Annual Meeting (Abstracts 402910, 404340). One study found that whether or not patients...
Women with breast cancer who underwent regular mammographic screening were diagnosed with earlier-stage disease and treated with significantly less aggressive therapies than those who delayed or never underwent screening, according to new research presented at the American Society of Breast...
Researchers have found that women with advanced triple-negative breast cancer with a BRCA mutation were twice as likely to benefit from carboplatin as docetaxel—the current standard of care for these patients. These findings were published by Tutt et al in Nature Medicine. The trial is set...
In an Australian trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sherman et al found that use of a structured online writing exercise (My Changed Body) was associated with reduced body image distress and improved body appreciation among breast cancer survivors. Study Details My Changed...
Nearly 85% of patients surveyed 6 or more months after completing radiotherapy as part of their treatment for breast cancer reported the side effects were not as bad as they had feared or expected. Approximately 92% of the 269 patients treated with breast conservation and 81% of the 58 patients...
In an Israeli case-cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hamood et al found that hormone therapy in breast cancer survivors was associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes. The study involved a cohort of 2,246 women from the Leumit health-care fund diagnosed with...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Schäfer et al, little difference in quality of life was observed over long-term follow-up between women receiving accelerated partial-breast irradiation (APBI) with interstitial brachytherapy vs whole-breast irradiation (WBI) after breast-conserving...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dowsett et al have developed a clinicopathologic tool for predicting risk of late distant recurrence in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer treated with 5 years of endocrine therapy. Study Details In the study, a prognostic score for...
A new method for early, more accurate breast cancer screening has been developed by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Soroka University Medical Center using commercially available technology. Their findings were published by Herman-Saffar et al in Computers in Biology and...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wheeler et al found that black women experience significantly worse financial impact from breast cancer compared with white women, which may contribute to barriers to treatment compliance and worse outcomes. Study Details The...
In the phase II PrE0102 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kornblum et al, the addition of everolimus to fulvestrant (Faslodex) improved progression-free survival in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer resistant to...
Research from the Yale School of Public Health has found that the majority of published papers analyzing the cost-effectiveness of a widely used test for breast cancer used a study design that can increase bias. These findings were published by Wang et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology....
In an update from the WECARE (Women’s Environmental Cancer and Radiation Epidemiology) study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Reiner et al found that women with invasive breast cancer are at increased risk of contralateral breast cancer even in the absence of deleterious...
On April 19, Polyphor announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation for its novel immuno-oncology candidate balixafortide (POL6326) in combination with eribulin (Halaven) for the treatment of patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who...
Evidence of the numerous health benefits of weight loss continues to mount, and the hope is that doctors and patients are listening. A large observational study presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium showed that weight loss of more than 5% is associated with a significantly lower ...
In patients with BRCA-positive advanced breast cancer, talazoparib reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 46% vs chemotherapy, according to the phase III EMBRACA trial presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “We are very pleased that the EMBRACA trial—the largest...
In breast cancer survivors after lymph node dissection, a combined education and exercise intervention resulted in patients regaining full range of motion in both arms sooner than those who received education alone, according to follow-up from a phase III clinical trial reported by Electra D....
How should clinicians position anti-HER2 agents and also incorporate endocrine therapies in the treatment of metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer? At the 2018 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, this question was explored by Sunil Verma, MD, Medical Director of the Tom Baker Cancer Center and...
In the phase II BOLERO-4 trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Royce et al found that the combination of the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) and endocrine therapy was active in first-line treatment of postmenopausal women with advanced estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, human epidermal growth factor...
“IN THE PAST, patients were often told to rest and reduce their physical activity during treatment, but we now know that exercise is both safe and beneficial,” said Timothy Gilligan, MD, MSc, moderator of a presscast where these results were presented prior to the Cancer Survivorship Symposium....
IN PATIENTS WITH breast and colon cancers, a physical exercise intervention conducted during adjuvant chemotherapy improved total physical activity levels 4 years after treatment, with a trend toward less fatigue, according to a follow-up study from the randomized multicenter PACT study, presented...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hershman et al found that each additional baseline cardiovascular disease risk factor was associated with increased risk for cardiac events and death among Medicare patients who had been enrolled in SWOG trials in breast cancer. Study...
CIRCULATING TUMOR DNA (ctDNA) assays are now commercially available for use in lung cancer and melanoma, where they can identify the presence of specific mutations that drive treatment selection. In breast cancer, ctDNA remains more of a research tool, but this is poised to change. At the 2018...
THANKS TO the efficacy of five approved anti-HER2 agents, patients with HER2-positive breast cancer have overall survival numbers that are as good as, or better than, their HER2-negative counterparts. With the next generation of anti-HER2 therapies in clinical trials, these outcomes may become even ...
Extensive surgery involving mastectomy and removal of several lymph nodes may be safely avoided for more women with some types of breast cancer if they receive targeted drugs before surgery, according to research presented at the 11th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-11) (Abstract 19). The...
At the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), Michael Gnant, MD, FACS, of the Medical University of Vienna presented the 9-year median follow-up of a trial looking at the length of extended aromatase inhibitor therapy. At least four other recently presented or published trials have...
Although aromatase inhibitors are highly effective as adjuvant therapy in metastatic breast cancer and for prevention of breast cancer, the side effects can be difficult to tolerate and often lead to discontinuation of therapy. A phase III randomized trial has found that acupuncture may relieve...
The average number of moderate or marked side effects reported by patients with breast cancer is lower if they are treated with radiotherapy to part of the breast or a reduced dose to the whole breast, rather than with standard whole breast radiotherapy (WBRT), according to new findings presented...
Women with small, low-grade, well-defined breast tumors and a genetic profile that shows they are at low risk of the cancer metastasizing have only a 1.4% risk of locoregional recurrence within 5 years, according to new results from a large randomized trial of nearly 7,000 patients. This low risk...
Sentinel lymph node biopsies may be safely avoided for some women, according to research presented at the 11th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-11). Two new studies show that women with either triple-negative or HER2-positive types of breast cancer, whose cancers respond well to chemotherapy ...
Healthy women who carry a breast cancer–causing mutation in the BRCA1 gene not only reduce their risk of developing the disease but also their chances of dying from it if they have both breasts removed, according to new research presented at the 11th European Breast Cancer Conference...
Patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) are less likely to have recurrent disease if they are postmenopausal or if their tumor is estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, according to research presented at the 11th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-11) (Abstract 215). DCIS accounts for about...
The risk of a second breast cancer in patients with high-risk BRCA gene mutations can be more precisely predicted by testing for several other genetic variants, each of which are known to have a small impact on breast cancer risk, according to new research presented at the 11th European Breast...
Anthony D. Elias, MD, of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, reviews promising experimental treatments, as well as PARP inhibitor therapy in TNBC, including the implications of newly approved olaparib for gBRCA-mutant breast cancer.
William J. Gradishar, MD, of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, discusses recent evidence on the efficacy, safety, and utility of HER2-targeted treatments in the adjuvant setting for early-stage and advanced breast cancers.
In 2017, more than 63,000 women in the United States were diagnosed with in situ breast cancer. The overwhelming majority of those women, about 83%, were diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a condition characterized by the presence of abnormal cells confined to the breast milk ducts;...
OLDER WOMEN residing in U.S. territories are less likely to receive recommended or timely care for breast cancer compared with similar women residing in the continental United States, according to Yale researchers, whose findings were published in Health Affairs.1 “Inferior breast cancer care in...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Katz et al found that less than half of patients with clinical indications received formal genetic counseling after breast cancer diagnosis. Study Details The study involved surveys of 5,080 patients aged 20 to 79 years diagnosed with early ...
On March 15, Genomic Health, Inc, was informed by the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group that the TAILORx trial, has achieved sufficient information to render a conclusion regarding the efficacy of chemotherapy in patients with early-stage breast cancer who have Oncotype DX recurrence score...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has issued a new clinical guideline for the use of whole-breast radiation therapy for breast cancer that expands the population of patients recommended to receive hypofractionated treatment. The guideline was published by Smith et al in...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wharam et al found that women who were switched from low-deductible to high-deductible insurance policies had delays in diagnostic workup, early breast cancer diagnosis, and initiation of chemotherapy compared with those maintained on...
Mutations in HER2 were found to confer resistance to hormone therapy in some estrogen receptor (ER)-positive metastatic breast cancer cases, and resistance could be reversed by dual treatment with the hormone therapy fulvestrant (Faslodex) and the HER2 kinase inhibitor neratinib (Nerlynx),...
On February 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved abemaciclib (Verzenio) in combination with an aromatase inhibitor as initial endocrine-based therapy for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer. MONARCH 3 Approval...
Breast cancer specialist Stacy L. Moulder, MD, was born and reared in Brookhaven, Mississippi, a small town southwest of the state capital of Jackson. “I was always interested in math and science, and I had a wonderful biology teacher in high school. It was when the advanced placement courses...
The current guidelines for mammographic breast cancer screening, which are based on data from primarily white populations, may lead to delayed diagnosis in nonwhite women, according to a report published by Stapleton et al in JAMA Surgery. A team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)...
In an analysis of data from the Breast International Group (BIG) 02-98 trial reported in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, Zeidan et al found that postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) vs no PMRT was associated with significantly reduced risk of locoregional...
ADITYA BARDIA, MD, Director of Precision Medicine at the Center for Breast Cancer, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, said: “This large, well-powered trial that included 181 centers and more than 2,600 patients unfortunately failed to show that celecoxib improved...
TWO YEARS of treatment with celecoxib had no observed effect on 5-year outcomes of patients with early breast cancer in the large REACT trial presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “There was no overall benefit observed in disease-free survival or overall survival for...
EACH YEAR, The ASCO Post asks Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Taussig Cancer Institute and Co-Director of the Cleveland Clinic Comprehensive Breast Cancer Program, to give his picks for the most important research presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer...