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Melinda Telli, MD, of the Stanford University School of Medicine, discusses the current status of treatment for advanced TNBC, and new therapeutic strategies now being used for better outcomes.
Lisa A. Carey, MD, of the University of North Carolina, discusses the long-term follow-up of CALGB 40502/NCCTG N063H, a phase III study of weekly paclitaxel compared with weekly nanoparticle albumin bound nab-paclitaxel or ixabepilone with or without bevacizumab as first-line therapy for locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer (Abstract GS3-06).
Michael Gnant, MD, of the Medical University of Vienna, discusses phase III study findings on giving an additional 2 vs an additional 5 years of anastrozole after the first 5 years of adjuvant endocrine therapy (Abstract GS3-01).
Vered Stearns, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, and Prudence A. Francis, MD, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discuss two key topics in adjuvant treatment: endocrine therapy for premenopausal women with ER+ breast cancer and finding the optimal duration of treatment.
A large study headed by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and two other institutions received $12 million in funding to examine why African American women seem to have more aggressive breast tumors and higher mortality rates from breast cancer than...
Lee S. Schwartzberg, MD, of the West Cancer Center, discusses phase II study findings evaluating exemestane with or without enzalutamide in patients with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer (Abstract GS4-07).
Sherene Loi, MD, PhD, and Roberto Salgado, MD, PhD, both of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discuss study findings on pembrolizumab and trastuzumab in patients with trastuzumab-resistant disease (Abstract GS2-06).
“We are in the midst of a steep increase” in the incidence of breast cancer among women aged 65 years and older, Arti Hurria, MD, reported at the 19th Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium, Chicago.1 “Are we prepared as a health-care system and as providers to address this burgeoning need?” she...
In patients with hormone receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer, the combination of targeted agents and hormone therapy is associated with a significantly increased risk of severe adverse events, according to research presented by Matteo Lambertini, MD, European Society for Medical Oncology...
Neurotoxicity in advanced breast cancer is not limited to chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, according to Matti Aapro, MD, of IMO Clinique de Genolier, Switzerland. Surgery, radiation therapy, and medical therapy can all have detrimental effects on either the central or peripheral nervous ...
Matteo Lambertini, MD, of the Institut Jules Bordet, discusses the results of five clinical trials investigating temporary ovarian suppression with gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs during chemotherapy as a strategy to preserve ovarian function and fertility in premenopausal early breast cancer patients (Abstract GS4-01).
Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the growing role of immunotherapy in treating breast disease, the evidence of biomarkers that may be associated with response to therapy, and the opportunities to perform robust correlative studies.
Meta-analysis of individual patient data from five randomized clinical trials provided a high level of evidence that treatment with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog (GnRHa) could safely and effectively protect ovarian function and potentially preserve fertility in premenopausal women...
Acupuncture significantly reduced joint pain for postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer receiving treatment with an aromatase inhibitor compared with both sham acupuncture and no treatment, according to data from the randomized, phase III SWOG S1200 trial presented by Hershman et al at ...
Adding the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor ribociclib (Kisqali) to standard endocrine therapy with temporary ovarian suppression significantly improved progression-free survival for pre- and perimenopausal women with advanced hormone receptor–positive (HR-positive), HER2-negative...
A combination of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and trastuzumab (Herceptin) tested in patients with trastuzumab-resistant advanced HER2-positive breast cancer was well tolerated and had clinical benefit in patients whose tumors were positive for a biomarker for pembrolizumab, according to data presented...
Richard G. Gray, MSc, of the University of Oxford, discusses an Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group meta-analysis of 21,000 women in 16 randomized trials, which showed that increasing the dose density of adjuvant chemotherapy by shortening intervals between courses or sequentially administering treatment significantly reduces disease recurrence and breast cancer mortality (Abstract GS1-01).
Louis Fehrenbacher, MD, of Kaiser Permanente, discusses study findings comparing adjuvant chemotherapy with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by weekly paclitaxel—or docetaxel and cyclophosphamide—with or without a year of trastuzumab in women with node-positive or high-risk node-negative disease (Abstract GS1-02).
Debu Tripathy, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase III study findings on first-line ribociclib vs placebo with goserelin and tamoxifen or a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor in premenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer (Abstract GS2-05).
Wolfgang Janni, MD, PhD, of Ulm University, discusses study findings that showed extended adjuvant bisphosphonate treatment over 5 years in early breast cancer does not improve disease-free and overall survival when compared with 2 years of treatment (Abstract GS1-06).
Silvia C. Formenti, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine, discusses the high therapeutic potential of combining radiotherapy with immunotherapy and findings that show radiation dose and fractionation seem particularly relevant to the success of abscopal responses. The science has now matured to clinical translation.
Increasing the dose intensity of chemotherapy—by either shortening the intervals between the cycles or by sequential administration instead of concurrent administration of the drugs—reduced the risk of early-stage breast cancer recurrence and death compared with standard chemotherapy...
Adding trastuzumab (Herceptin) to standard adjuvant chemotherapy did not improve invasive disease–free survival for patients with early-stage breast cancer found to have low levels of HER2, defined as immunohistochemistry (IHC) 1–positive or IHC 2-positive and/or in situ hybridization...
The phase III KRISTINE trial has shown that neoadjuvant therapy with docetaxel, carboplatin, and trastuzumab (Herceptin) plus pertuzumab (Perjeta) resulted in a higher pathologic complete response rate vs ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) plus pertuzumab, as well as a higher incidence of severe...
The phase III SOLE trial has shown no disease-free survival benefit with extended intermittent vs continuous adjuvant letrozole in postmenopausal women with breast cancer. These findings were reported by Colleoni et al in The Lancet Oncology. As noted by the investigators, the findings suggest an...
Compared with the non-Hispanic white (NHW) population, the urban American Indian and Alaskan Native (AIAN) community was more likely to have lower survival rates following invasive prostate and breast cancer, according to a new study by Emerson et al in Cancer Research. “It’s been...
With cancer care costs projected to increase 32% from 2010 to 2020, researchers are working to determine the main drivers of costs for treating breast cancer. In a study led by Ami Vyas, PhD, MS, MBA, of the University of Rhode Island, published in the November issue of JNCCN–Journal of the...
THE U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION (FDA) approved a number of novel drugs and new indications in November 2017. Several of them are listed here. Fulvestrant/Abemaciclib Combination in Breast Cancer ON NOVEMBER 15 , the FDA approved fulvestrant (Faslodex) in combination with abemaciclib...
Even with equivalent access to care, black patients with breast cancer may fare worse than white patients with breast cancer, according to Lawrence H. Kushi, ScD, Director of Scientific Policy at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research in Oakland. “Accounting for...
A deeper understanding of biology has allowed significant advances in the treatment of breast cancer. In the early-stage setting, standard pathology measures can help identify which subset of patients with hormone receptor–positive breast cancers are more likely to experience benefit from...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Losk and colleagues from Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center report their institution’s implementation of a protocol of surgeon-initiated genomic profiling of estrogen receptor–positive tumors in women with early breast cancer that resulted in ...
In a single-center study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Katya Losk, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues found that an intervention including surgeon initiation of gene-expression profile testing with Oncotype DX significantly reduced the time to testing, receipt of...
In a meta-analysis reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Pan et al for the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG), it was found that breast cancer recurs at a steady incidence following cessation of adjuvant endocrine therapy after 5 years, with the risk...
A large subset analysis of the MINDACT trial suggests that oncologists may be undertreating women with small (< 1 cm) node-negative breast tumors, which are clinically considered to be low risk but can be genomically high risk. About one in four women with small node-negative breast tumors <...
The phase III SWOG S1202 trial has shown benefit of the antidepressant agent duloxetine in reducing aromatase inhibitor–associated joint pain in women with early-stage breast cancer. These results were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Henry et al. Study Details In the...
As neoadjuvant treatment of women with high-risk luminal breast cancer, the combination of letrozole and palbociclib (Ibrance) did not reduce the residual cancer burden or improve the rates of breast-conserving surgery, in the phase II UNICANCER- NeoPAL study presented at the 2017 European Society ...
On July 17, 2017, neratinib (Nerlynx) a dual inhibitor of HER2 and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), was approved for extended adjuvant treatment of adults with early-stage HER2-overexpressed/amplified breast cancer following adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin)-based therapy.1,2 Supporting...
On September 28, 2017, the cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) inhibitor abemaciclib (Verzenio) was approved for use in combination with fulvestrant (Faslodex) for women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer with disease progression following...
As computer-based physician support systems for decision-making in cancer management continue to evolve, “we will come to embrace this as something that liberates us to spend more time on the human aspects of cancer care,” Andrew D. Seidman, MD, told participants at the 2017 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer ...
While age remains a major risk factor for breast cancer, with nearly 80% of new cases occurring in women aged 50 years and older, women diagnosed at a younger age generally have poorer outcomes. This is partly because premenopausal women are more likely to have triple-negative breast cancer, which ...
The treatment of triple-negative breast cancer is rapidly evolving, as clinical trials continue to test chemotherapy agents and combinations and immunotherapy studies promise potentially “game-changing” interventions early in the course of disease, Joyce O’Shaughnessy, MD, reported at the 19th...
“Growing research suggests that body weight is not only related to the risk of developing malignancy, but also prognosis after diagnosis, especially in breast cancer,” said Jennifer A. Ligibel, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, at the 19th Annual Lynn Sage Breast...
The 5-year analysis of the phase III ExteNET trial has shown that 1 year of neratinib (Nerlynx) after trastuzumab (Herceptin)-based adjuvant therapy significantly improved invasive disease–free survival vs placebo in HER2-positive breast cancer. These findings were reported in The Lancet...
A prospective study by Palmer et al assessing the relationship of type 2 diabetes and the incidence of estrogen receptor–negative and estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer among African American women has found statistically significant evidence of an increased risk of estrogen...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new indication for fulvestrant (Faslodex), expanding the drug's approved use to include combined therapy with abemaciclib (Verzenio), a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor, for the treatment of hormone receptor–positive,...
A cohort study in Ashkenazi Jewish women with breast cancer identified mutations other than BRCA1 and BRCA2 founder alleles that were associated with cancer risk. These results were reported by Walsh et al in JAMA Oncology. Among Ashkenazi Jewish women, three mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2...
In the phase III DATA trial reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute by Vivianne C.G. Tjan-Heijnen, MD, PhD, of the Maastricht University Medical Centre, the Netherlands, and colleagues, 12% of women with breast cancer who had chemotherapy-induced ovarian function failure...
The 10-year follow-up of the phase III TEAM trial has shown that exemestane alone and sequential tamoxifen/exemestane provide similar outcomes as adjuvant endocrine therapy in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive early breast cancer. The findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology ...
An analysis of the GeparSixto trial in triple-negative breast cancer showed that adding carboplatin to neoadjuvant therapy improved pathologic complete response rate in patients without BRCA1/2 mutation and that response rates were higher overall in those with mutations, without additive effects...
Some women, because of genetic predisposition, personal, or family history, have a higher-than-average lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. For those women, earlier magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is recommended for cancer screening. But according to new findings presented at the American...