October 10, 2021 - Supplement: Breast Cancer Almanac (View All Issues)
Breast Cancer 2020–2021 Almanac
The past decade has seen an explosion of novel agents for breast cancer across subtypes. Although each new advance improves therapeutic options for patients, it also brings forth a challenging question: Who needs what treatment? Not all cancers are created equally, and similarly not all patients...
Beyond CDK4/6 Inhibitors in Metastatic Breast Cancer: What’s Next?
Because of their well-established efficacy, inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) are the standard of care in the treatment of hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. The question now is this: After disease progresses on a CDK4/6 inhibitor and endocrine...
OlympiA Trial: Adjuvant Olaparib Extends Disease-Free Survival in BRCA-Mutated Early Breast Cancer
Adjuvant therapy with the PARP inhibitor olaparib for 1 year extended disease-free survival in patients with high-risk early-stage HER2-negative breast cancer with BRCA1/2 germline (inherited) mutations, according to a prespecified interim analysis of the phase III OlympiA trial presented at the...
Addition of Adjuvant Palbociclib to Ongoing Endocrine Therapy in HR-Positive, HER2-Negative Early Breast Cancer: PALLAS Trial
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Erica L. Mayer, MD, and colleagues, the second interim analysis of the phase III PALLAS trial showed no improvement in invasive disease–free survival with the addition of adjuvant palbociclib to ongoing endocrine therapy in patients with hormone receptor...
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 disease recurrence by 28.7%. Meanwhile, the first results of the phase III PENELOPE-B trial of...
RxPONDER: Many Postmenopausal Patients With Node-Positive Breast Cancer Can Avoid Chemotherapy
The SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial evaluated the benefit of chemotherapy in women with early-stage hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer and node-positive disease.1 The data showed that many postmenopausal women can skip adjuvant chemotherapy, based on a 46% reduction in the risk of...
Novel HER2-Targeted Therapies Pose Sequencing Challenges
With three new HER2-targeted therapies approved over the past year or two alone, the treatment landscape for patients with metastatic breast cancer has become increasingly crowded. In the third-line setting and beyond, there are now at least eight HER2-targeted agents approved by the U.S. Food and...
Long-Term Analysis of Short-HER Trial of Adjuvant Trastuzumab
Long-term analysis of the Short-HER trial showed that 9 weeks of adjuvant trastuzumab conveyed benefits comparable to a 1-year course in patients with early HER2-positive breast cancer deemed to be at low or intermediate risk for recurrence. High-risk patients, however, derived considerably more...
ADAPT Trial: ‘Excellent’ Outcomes Reported With Neoadjuvant Dual HER2 Therapy in Breast Cancer
The first overall survival analysis of the WGS-ADAPT HER2+/HR– study, which evaluated neoadjuvant therapy in patients with hormone receptor–negative, HER2-positive disease, showed that treatment with pertuzumab and trastuzumab plus paclitaxel—or with the chemotherapy-free regimen of...
Margetuximab-cmkb Plus Chemotherapy Prolongs Progression-Free Survival in Heavily Pretreated HER2 Positive Breast Cancer
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Hope S. Rugo, MD, of the University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III SOPHIA trial has shown significantly prolonged progression-free survival with margetuximab-cmkb plus chemotherapy vs...
Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Are Checkpoint Inhibitors Ready for Neoadjuvant or Adjuvant Use?
Recent clinical trials have been encouraging for the neoadjuvant or adjuvant use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in triple-negative breast cancer, but is this approach ready for the clinic? This question was addressed at the 38th Miami Breast Cancer Conference, held virtually this year, by Adam M....
KEYNOTE-522: Neoadjuvant Pembrolizumab Improves Event-Free Survival in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
The latest analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-522 trial demonstrated significant improvements in clinical outcomes with pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy vs chemotherapy alone as a neoadjuvant/adjuvant treatment of triple-negative breast cancer.1 This is the first large, randomized, phase III trial to ...
Neoadjuvant Durvalumab Improves Long-Term Outcomes in the GeparNuevo Trial
In the phase II GeparNuevo trial, patients with early triple-negative breast cancer receiving the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab in addition to chemotherapy as neoadjuvant therapy saw improvements in long-term outcomes. The results were presented at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting by Sibylle Loibl, MD,...
Sacituzumab Govitecan-hziy Improves Survival vs Single-Agent Chemotherapy in Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Aditya Bardia, MD, of the Division of Medical Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III ASCENT trial has shown prolonged progression-free and overall survival with the Trop-2–directed antibody-drug...
EA1131 Trial: Platinum Not Equal to Capecitabine for Residual Disease in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
In patients with triple-negative breast cancer who have residual disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, adjuvant capecitabine remains the standard of care. In the multicenter randomized noninferiority EA1131 trial, which included primarily basal tumors, noninferiority of adjuvant platinum over...
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 KEYNOTE-355.1 Progression-free survival was significantly improved with pembrolizumab plus...
Recent FDA Approvals in Breast Cancer
In the past year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved five treatment options for patients with breast cancer, which are summarized herein.
Abemaciclib Combination
On October 12, 2021, the FDA approved abemaciclib (Verzenio) with endocrine therapy (tamoxifen or an aromatase...
