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In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chavez-MacGregor et al found that the majority of older breast cancer patients receiving trastuzumab (Herceptin)-based chemotherapy do not receive adequate cardiac monitoring. Study Details The study involved 2,203 patients aged ≥...
Researchers at UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered that for women with a relatively common inherited mutation, known as the KRAS-variant, abrupt lowering of estrogen may increase their breast cancer risk and impact breast cancer biology. Scientists also found that women with...
In a Polish prospective cohort analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Cybulski et al found that PALB2 mutation carriers had increased risk of breast cancer and that those with breast cancer had significantly reduced long-term survival. Study Details In the study, genotyping for two...
A new study finds that women who are diagnosed with breast cancer and have a family history of the disease face no worse a prognosis after treatment than other women with breast cancer. The study, which was published by Eccles et al in the British Journal of Surgery, offers a positive message for...
In the SWOG S0927 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hershman et al found that both omega-3 fatty acids and placebo resulted in marked persistent reductions in aromatase inhibitor–related arthralgia among patients with early breast cancer, with no difference between...
In the phase III ARTemis trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Earl et al found that the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard neoadjuvant therapy resulted in a higher pathologic complete response rate in women with HER2-negative early breast cancer. Study Details In this open-label...
In the Dutch PACES trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, van Waart et al found that both a moderate/high-intensity supervised exercise program and a low-intensity home-based program provided benefits vs usual care in women undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer. Benefits,...
To provide guidance on high-value cancer care screening strategies, the American College of Physicians (ACP) recently reviewed clinical guidelines issued by various medical organizations for screening strategies in five common cancers for asymptomatic, average-risk adults. The five cancers focused...
A large prospective study investigating the association between dense breast tissue and the risk for interval breast cancer has found that breast density alone should not be the sole criterion for recommending supplemental breast imaging, because not all women with dense breasts have high interval...
In a Dutch study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Heemskerk-Gerritsen et al in the Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer in the Netherlands (HEBON) study group found no apparent reduction in the risk for breast cancer with salpingo-oophorectomy in healthy BRCA1/2 mutation...
One-view digital breast tomosynthesis detects 40% more breast cancers than two-view digital mammography does, according to a major screening study from Lund University in Sweden. The study’s results were published by Lång et al in European Radiology. This is the first large-scale study ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bartlett et al found that the presence of duplication of chromosome 17 pericentromeric alpha satellite, measured by a centromere enumeration probe (CEP17), and TOP2A aberrations predicted benefit of anthracycline-based adjuvant therapy in...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Coromilas et al found that axillary lymph node evaluation is frequently performed in women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and a number of hospital or surgeon characteristics are associated with likelihood of evaluation. As noted by the authors, benefit...
A study by Sineshaw et al has found that black men with early-stage breast cancer who were younger than age 65 had a 76% higher risk of death than whites. However, the disparity was significantly reduced after adjusting for differences in insurance and income, suggesting the importance of...
In a retrospective analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Metcalfe et al found that oophorectomy in patients with early-stage breast cancer was associated with significantly improved breast cancer survival in women harboring a BRCA1 mutation and in those with estrogen receptor–negative...
In an analysis of Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trials reported in JAMA Oncology, Chlebowski et al found differing patterns of breast cancer risk among women receiving menopausal hormone therapy with estrogen plus progestin or estrogen alone. Women receiving estrogen plus progestin had...
For women with a family history of breast cancer, new multigene panel testing yields greater information about cancer risk while assessing deleterious BRCA1/2 mutations as accurately as BRCA testing alone, according to a study presented at the American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting....
Mastectomies that preserve the nipple and an envelope of breast skin are as safe as more radical breast cancer operations for qualifying patient populations, according to one of the largest meta-analyses of studies involving women treated with this increasingly popular approach. Speaking at the...
Annual screening mammography is significantly more cost-effective than bilateral prophylactic mastectomy in managing the care of most women at high risk for breast cancer. Women with a known BRCA gene mutation, which carries an exceptionally high risk, are a notable exception. These were the...
A decrease in the amount of time spent eating and an increase in overnight fasting reduces glucose levels and may reduce the risk of breast cancer among women. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reported these findings in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers &...
A new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that many women diagnosed with breast cancer are concerned about the genetic risk of developing other cancers themselves, or of a loved one developing cancer. These findings were published by Jagsi et al in the Journal of ...
In a nested case-control study reported in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Martin et al found that higher HDL cholesterol and apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1) levels and lower non-HDL cholesterol and apolipoprotein B (apoB) levels were associated with increased risk of breast cancer in women...
No approved targeted therapies exist to treat triple-negative breast cancer, but new chemotherapeutic treatment strategies are helping shrink tumors so that less breast tissue needs to be removed during surgery. New research led by Brigham and Women's Hospital finds that breast-conserving therapy...
Research from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey shows genomic profiling identifies mutations in a gene associated with a rare subset of breast cancer—mutations that cannot otherwise be identified with standard clinical analysis of cells and tissue. The findings, presented at the AACR...
A combination of two molecularly targeted drugs, olaparib (Lynparza) and the investigational agent AZD5363, was safe and yielded responses in patients with a variety of cancer types, including breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers, regardless of BRCA1/2-mutation status, according to data from the...
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued its updated draft recommendation statement on mammography screening guidelines. The revised guidelines still recommend that women aged 50 to 74 get mammography screening for breast cancer every 2 years and now states that the decision to...
Combination treatment with the poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza) and the investigational phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor BKM120 was safe and yielded evidence of clinical benefit for women with triple-negative breast cancer and for those with high-grade...
The dual mTOR inhibitor AZD2014, when combined with the hormonal therapy fulvestrant (Faslodex), was found to be safe in patients with advanced estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer, and some of them experienced clinical benefit from the drug combination, according to phase I clinical...
Breast density, which is associated with breast cancer risk, was found to be higher in black women than white women when measured using novel quantitative methods, according to research presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015, held April 18 to 22 in Philadelphia (Abstract 2770). “Since...
The investigational immunotherapy MPDL3280A was safe, tolerable, and showed early signs of durable clinical activity in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, according to data from a first-in-human phase I clinical trial presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015, held April 18 to...
The total number of breast cancer cases in the United States is forecast to be 50% greater in 2030 than it was in 2011, when invasive and in situ or screening-detected cancers are counted together. This increase is predicted to be driven mostly by a marked increase in cases of estrogen...
In the randomized phase II EMERGE study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yardley et al found that the anti–glycoprotein NMB (gpNMB) antibody-drug conjugate glembatumumab vedotin may improve response rate over alternative chemotherapy in patients with advanced refractory breast...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Makarov et al found that hospital referral regions marked by higher rates of inappropriate imaging in patients with low-risk breast cancer also had high rates of inappropriate prostate imaging in patients with low-risk prostate cancer. Inappropriate imaging...
In the phase II TBCRC009 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Isakoff et al found that platinum monotherapy was active in treatment of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, particularly in cases with BRCA1/2 mutation, and that an assay of genomic instability characteristic of...
In the phase II PrECOG 0105 study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Telli et al found that neoadjuvant iniparib plus gemcitabine-carboplatin was active in early-stage triple-negative and BRCA1/2-mutant breast cancer. Higher score on a homologous recombination deficiency–loss of...
A new study showed that providing women with skills to manage stress early in their breast cancer treatment can improve their mood and quality of life many years later. Published by Stagl et al in Cancer, the findings suggest that women given the opportunity to learn stress management techniques...
In the phase III National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group (NCIC CTG) MA.31 trial, first-line treatment with lapatinib (Tykerb) vs trastuzumab (Herceptin) combined with a taxane was associated with poorer progression-free survival and greater toxicity in patients with advanced...
Women who have inherited mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA1/2) have an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancers. However, little has been known about how cancer risks differ by BRCA1/2 mutation type. In a study involving more than 31,000 women who are carriers of disease-associated mutations...
Black and Hispanic women with breast cancer were less likely to choose their surgeon and the hospital for treatment based on reputation compared with white women, according to researchers. These findings suggest minority patients may rely more on physician referrals and health plans in those...
Very low mammographic breast density worsens the prognosis of breast cancer, according to a recent study from the University of Eastern Finland. Researchers published their findings in an article by Masarwah et al in European Radiology. The lower the breast tissue density, the less fibroglandular...
In a study reported in JAMA, Elmore et al found a substantial rate of disagreement between pathologist diagnosis based on single breast biopsy slides and the consensus-derived diagnosis of a panel of pathologists. Disagreement rates were highest for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and atypical...
Numerous studies have documented racial differences in deaths from cancer among non-Hispanic whites and African Americans, but little has been known about survival outcomes for Asian Americans who have been diagnosed with cancer. In a new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer...
In a new study, UCLA researchers have developed a cognitive rehabilitation program to address post-treatment cognitive changes, sometimes known as “chemobrain,” which can affect up to 35% of post-treatment breast cancer patients. Their findings were reported by Erocli et al in...
In an Italian 2×2 phase III trial reported in The Lancet, Del Mastro et al found that dose-dense adjuvant therapy with sequential epirubicin, cyclophosphamide, and paclitaxel (EC-P) with or without fluorouracil (5-FU) increased disease-free survival vs standard-interval therapy in early-stage ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rhodes et al found that only about half of screening-age women had awareness of breast density and adequate knowledge of its impact on breast cancer detection and risk. Breast density is an important factor contributing to false-negative...
Diabetes is associated with more advanced stage breast cancer, according to a new study by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Women's College Hospital. The findings, published by Lipscombe et al in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, confirm a strong link between diabetes...
Scientists have developed a new test that predicts the survival chances of women with breast cancer by analyzing images of “hotspots” where there has been a fierce immune reaction to a tumor. Using statistical software previously used in criminology studies of crime hotspots,...
In the phase III POEMS/S0230 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Moore et al found that treatment with the gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist goserelin (Zoladex) reduced risk of ovarian failure during chemotherapy for breast cancer in premenopausal women. Study Details In...
Having a family history of prostate cancer among first-degree relatives may increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. Researchers from multiple institutions published their findings in a study by Beebe-Dimmer et al in Cancer. The study's results indicate that clinicians should take a...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wharam et al found that estimated mammography rates were lower than predicted in white, Hispanic, and Asian women since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) changed its screening recommendations in November 2009. The guidelines...