© 2025 HSP News Service, L.L.C.
Taking aspirin daily does not prevent breast cancer recurrence, according to research presented during the February ASCO Plenary Series Program.1 Results of the double-blind phase III study of more than 3,000 patients with high-risk, HER2-negative breast cancer showed no improvement in invasive...
Genetics and other factors that can determine if a woman is at risk for a recurrence of breast cancer have been identified by investigators at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, providing new research avenues for preventing a new tumor from developing. The discovery was made possible...
Neoadjuvant pembrolizumab has been approved in combination with chemotherapy for high-risk, early-stage, triple-negative breast cancer, but not all patients with node-positive disease have been able to receive the regimen, according to data presented during the Society of Surgical Oncology 2022...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Thorsen et al, 15-year follow-up of the Danish Breast Cancer Group Internal Mammary Node study indicates continued survival benefit with internal mammary node irradiation in women with right breast tumors vs without such therapy in those with left...
In a German trial (WSG-ADAPT-HR1/HER2–) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nitz et al found no difference in invasive disease-free survival between women with early hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer with zero to three positive nodes who had a 21-gene recurrence score ...
In the German TOSYMA trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Heindel et al found that screening with digital breast tomosynthesis plus synthesized mammography was superior in detecting invasive breast cancer vs standard digital mammography. As stated by the investigators, “Two-dimensional (2D)...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Malinowski et al found that Medicaid expansion resulted in a reduction in the racial and ethnic disparities in mortality among patients with de novo stage IV breast cancer. As stated by the investigators, “Patients who are uninsured and belong to racial and...
Two presentations given at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022 focused on promising strategies for making breakthrough immunotherapies work for more patients. Both studies report findings from clinical trials that advance a novel immunotherapy platform in...
In an analysis from the French prospective CANTO study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vaz-Luis et al identified three trajectory groups for the risk of severe global fatigue over time among women treated for breast cancer, consisting of a high-risk group, deteriorating group, and...
In an analysis from the prospective cohort Pathways Heart Study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Heather Greenlee, ND, PhD, and colleagues found that breast cancer survivors were at increased risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality compared with women without breast cancer, with...
Meenakshi Anurag, PhD, of Baylor College of Medicine, discusses results from the ALTERNATE trial, which showed the combination of anastrozole plus fulvestrant was superior to either drug alone in inhibiting tumor proliferation in postmenopausal women with early-stage luminal B breast cancer (Abstract CT026).
More than 10% of cases of recurrent ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast were de novo tumors that occurred independently of the primary lesion and had distinct genetic alterations, according to data presented by Kader et al during the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual...
“OlympiA is clearly a practice-changing trial, and olaparib should be offered to patients meeting the entry criteria for the study,” said Mark E. Robson, MD, Chief of the Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Dr. Robson was invited to discuss the findings of...
The OlympiA trial of adjuvant olaparib in patients with HER2-negative, high-risk early-stage breast cancer and BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations has now demonstrated a significant overall survival benefit, reducing the risk of death over placebo by 32% and yielding an absolute improvement of 3.8% at 3...
Nothing can really prepare you for cancer, but it helped that I have dedicated my life in service to others as a minister and advocate for social justice and health equity in breast cancer survivorship. Before my own breast cancer diagnosis in 2016, I had spent years as a volunteer for several...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Qin et al found that gains in body weight and body fat were common in a prospective cohort of Black breast cancer survivors. The researchers also identified factors associated with these changes. As stated by the investigators, “Unfavorable...
New research published by Lowry et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found the rate of mammography participation by breast cancer survivors has been steadily declining since 2009, particularly among younger survivors. The researchers reviewed a nationwide commercial...
Young women with nonmetastatic breast cancer have similar survival rates whether they are treated with mastectomy or lumpectomy, despite tumors that are typically more aggressive and discovered at a later stage compared to their older counterparts. These findings were from a recent study examining...
Positive lymph node status may not be a reliable indicator of the need for adjuvant chemotherapy, and sentinel node biopsy may be unnecessary in older women with certain low-risk cancers, according to a new study presented by Nicholson et al at the American Society of Breast Surgeons 23rd Annual...
The 1-year local COVID-19 restrictions negatively impacted breast cancer stage at presentation, time to treatment, and time to surgery at an urban safety-net hospital, increasing the vulnerability of an already high-risk population. These findings were from a recent study presented by Kapp et al at ...
In a Dutch retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, de Jong et al found that higher levels of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) were associated with “excellent prognosis” in young women with node-negative triple-negative breast cancer who did not receive...
Guideline-directed medical therapy for the prevention and treatment of cardiotoxicity is improving quality of life and oncologic outcomes associated with breast cancer treatment, according to Jean-Bernard Durand, MD, FACP, FCCP, FACC, FHFSA, Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas MD...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Javier Cortés, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the phase III DESTINY-Breast03 trial has shown significantly prolonged progression-free survival with fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) vs ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in patients with...
Novel hormonal therapies for breast cancer could provide additional therapeutic options for patients with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. The emerging landscape for these new agents was described at the 2022 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, sponsored by PER, by Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH,...
In an analysis from the Women’s Health Initiative reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Kerryn W. Reding, PhD, MPH, RN, and colleagues identified the incidence of hospitalization for heart failure among postmenopausal breast cancer survivors, finding that both incidence of hospitalization and risk of...
In patients with breast cancer tumors harboring BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, inhibitors of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) have emerged as essential therapeutic agents. What more needs to be done to obtain even more benefit from these targeted agents? This question was tackled at the 2022 Miami...
The OlympiA trial of adjuvant olaparib in patients with HER2-negative, high-risk early breast cancer and BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations has demonstrated a significant overall survival benefit, reducing the risk of death over placebo by 32%. Andrew Tutt, MBChB, PhD, Director of Breast Cancer Now at the...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Network Open, Goel et al identified genomic differences among Black, Asian, and White patients with breast cancer and found that Black patients have fewer targetable actionable variants than White patients. Study Details The study included patients...
On March 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved olaparib (Lynparza) for the adjuvant treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative, high-risk early breast cancer who have been treated with neoadjuvant or adjuvant...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, and colleagues, the protocol-specified final overall survival analysis of the phase III MONALEESA-2 trial has shown a significant benefit with the addition of ribociclib to letrozole in the first-line treatment of...
An update to a joint guideline from Cancer Care Ontario (now a division of Ontario Health) and ASCO provides revised recommendations for the use of adjuvant bone-modifying agents for patients with nonmetastatic breast cancer, with the overarching goal of improving relapse and survival rates.1,2...
Breast cancer specialist Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, FACP, grew up in the East Bay area of Northern California, the youngest of five children. “My mother was a traditional stay-at-home mom, and my father was a probation officer. I come from a long line of artists; my great-grandfather on my mother’s side...
The antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) has led to practice changes in previously treated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Most notably, in the DESTINY-Breast03 trial, treatment with T-DXd produced a doubling in 12-month progression-free survival vs...
The current standard of care for the neoadjuvant treatment of HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer consists of trastuzumab plus pertuzumab and polychemotherapy. But some patients, particularly those with locally advanced or inflammatory disease, still relapse and die. Furthermore, multiagent...
New recommendations for treating advanced breast cancer, coming from a panel of experts at the Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC) Sixth International Consensus Conference (ABC6), were recently published.1 The report highlights advances that have resulted in robust improvements in overall survival for...
Breast cancer has surpassed lung cancer as the leading cause of cancer mortality among Black women as of 2019. This news is one of the key findings in Cancer Statistics for African American/Black People 2022, published recently in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians and its consumer-friendly...
A recent study published by Conley et al in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment aimed to evaluate factors that influence the ability of people with metastatic breast cancer to adhere to their prescribed regimen of oral anticancer medication.1 Researchers found that multiple factors affected...
In an analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Lowry et al found that a strategy of annual magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) screening starting at age 30 to 35 years—followed by annual MRI and mammography at age 40—could reduce the risk of breast cancer mortality by more than 50% in women with ATM,...
In an Asian study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ang et al developed a model for predicting carrier status of pathogenic variants in BRCA1 or BRCA2 among Asian women with breast cancer. As stated by the investigators, “With the development of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors...
In a post hoc analysis published in JAMA Oncology from the TAILORx trial of adjuvant therapy in early hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative, axillary node–negative breast cancer, Sadigh et al found that Black women had a poorer relapse-free interval and overall survival vs White women. This ...
Switching from an aromatase inhibitor to fulvestrant upon early identification of the ESR1 mutation in plasma—before disease progression—doubled progression-free survival in the phase III PADA-1 trial, presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “PADA-1 is the first trial to...
Use of the first investigational oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) elacestrant significantly reduced the risk of death or disease progression and lengthened progression-free survival compared with standard-of-care endocrine therapy with fulvestrant or an aromatase inhibitor in...
The addition of metformin, a drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes, to standard adjuvant treatment failed to improve invasive disease–free survival or overall survival for hormone receptor–positive or –negative breast cancer, according to the results of a large landmark trial led by the...
The final protocol-defined analysis of the phase III PALLAS trial confirmed the negative results of the second interim analysis, showing no benefit of palbociclib plus endocrine therapy in the adjuvant breast cancer setting. Michael Gnant, MD, of the Medical University of Vienna, reported these...
Further analyses of the MONALEESA metastatic breast cancer trials have shown that the benefit of ribociclib plus endocrine therapy in the first-line setting extends to most intrinsic molecular subtypes and is consistent across multiple subgroups. The studies were presented at the 2021 San Antonio...
Updated results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial confirmed the key takeaway from the previous analysis: adjuvant chemotherapy benefits premenopausal women but not postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative disease, one to three positive lymph nodes, and a 21-gene Oncotype DX ...
Patients with advanced HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer and high tumor mutational burden achieved responses—often durable—from treatment with the immunotherapy doublet of nivolumab and ipilimumab, according to the results of the phase II NIMBUS trial reported at the 2021 San Antonio Breast...
Results of the phase III randomized KEYNOTE-355 trial showed that the addition of the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab to investigator’s choice of first-line chemotherapy improved progression-free and overall survival in women with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer compared with placebo and...
Updated results from the pivotal KEYNOTE-522 trial have confirmed the benefit of neoadjuvant therapy with pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer.1 The results were presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium by Peter Schmid, MD, PhD,...
Datopotamab deruxtecan, an antibody-drug conjugate directed against trophoblast cell surface antigen-2 (Trop-2), is showing activity as a treatment for relapsed or refractory advanced triple-negative breast cancer, according to early findings from the phase I TROPION-PanTumor01 trial presented...