© 2025 HSP News Service, L.L.C.
In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, Agarwal et al compared breast cancer–specific survival rates of patients with early-stage invasive ductal carcinoma undergoing breast-conservation therapy (lumpectomy followed by radiation), mastectomy alone, or mastectomy with radiation using the SEER...
Sentinel lymph node biopsy is standard of care for axillary staging in clinically node-negative breast cancer, and underuse of sentinel lymph node biopsy could be associated with unnecessary axillary lymph node dissection and lymphedema. In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, Yen et al assessed the...
Triple-negative breast cancer may be considered a relative contraindication to breast-conserving surgery. In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, Gangi et al from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles assessed outcomes in a large cohort of women undergoing breast-conserving surgery at their...
In an individual patient data meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Houssami et al found that preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was not associated with differences in local recurrence or distant recurrence compared with conventional imaging in women with breast...
In a phase III study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Roila et al compared aprepitant vs dexamethasone in prevention of delayed emesis in breast cancer patients treated with anthracycline/cyclophosphamide who had received palonosetron/aprepitant/dexamethasone prophylaxis for acute...
In a phase III 2×2 factorial trial (Neo-tAnGo) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Earl et al compared neoadjuvant therapy with epirubicin/cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel with or without gemcitabine vs paclitaxel with or without gemcitabine followed by epirubicin/cyclophosphamide in ...
Wider surgical margins did not reduce the rate of local recurrence in women with triple-negative breast cancer treated with breast-conserving therapy, according to the results of a study published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology. Pilewskie et al reported that their data support the definition of ...
In a phase III noninferiority trial (ZICE) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Barrett-Lee et al compared oral ibandronic acid vs intravenous zoledronic acid in treatment of bone metastases from breast cancer. The study showed that ibandronic acid was not noninferior to zoledronic acid in preventing...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Pan et al assessed factors associated with noncompliance with recommended radiation therapy following breast-conserving surgery for breast cancer. A primary factor in underuse of radiation therapy was younger patients having...
Adding dasatinib (Sprycel) to a standard antihormone therapy, letrozole, doubled the time before disease progressed for women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer, according to results of a phase II clinical trial presented at the 2013 San Antonio Breast...
As reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute by Di Leo et al, the final overall survival analysis of the CONFIRM trial has shown a significant benefit of fulvestrant (Faslodex) at 500 mg vs 250 mg in postmenopausal women with locally advanced or metastatic estrogen...
Adjuvant use of bisphosphonates reduced the risk of bone recurrence by 34% and the risk of breast cancer death by 17% in postmenopausal women with early breast cancer in a large meta-analysis conducted by the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG). The potentially...
There may be a benefit for treating small HER2-positive tumors and this can be done with little toxicity, according to a multicenter study presented at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract S1-04). Previous studies of chemotherapy plus anti-HER2 treatment for node-negative...
Women with HER2-positive, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer with mutations in the PI3K/AKT pathway may respond poorly to neoadjuvant therapy, German researchers reported at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract S4-06). “We found that very few women with HER2-positive...
In postmenopausal women receiving hormone replacement therapy, low-dose tamoxifen did not significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer but did increase climacteric symptoms, according to the phase III study results presented by DeCensi et al in the Annals of Oncology. However, beneficial trends...
Five years of treatment with anastrozole reduced the risk of primary breast cancer by 53% in postmenopausal women at high risk for developing the disease, according to an analysis of the IBIS II trial. Anastrozole reduced the risk of estrogen receptor–positive invasive cancers by 58%. The...
Among older women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, it is reasonable to omit whole-breast radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery and neoadjuvant hormone therapy if the patient’s tumors have high levels of estrogen receptor expression, but radiation should remain...
Final results of the phase III NeoALTTO trial have confirmed the value of pathologic complete response to dual HER2 blockade in the neoadjuvant setting. The achievement of pathologic complete response was associated with significantly improved event-free survival and overall survival in some women...
Bevacizumab (Avastin) failed to extend invasive disease–free survival when added to trastuzumab (Herceptin)-directed adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer in the phase III BETH trial. Although not specifically designed to answer this question, BETH also...
Re-examination of data from four large studies of the benefits and harms of mammography screening shows that the benefits are more consistent across these studies than previously understood and that all the studies indicate a substantial reduction in breast cancer mortality with screening,...
Women with HER2-positive breast cancer who had the highest levels of immune cells in their tumors gained the most benefit from presurgery treatment with chemotherapy and trastuzumab (Herceptin), according to results presented today at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract S1-05)....
Data from a study by Ritu Aneja, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Georgia State University in Atlanta, and colleagues indicate that overexpression of the protein HSET is a valuable prognostic biomarker in African American women with breast cancer, but not in Caucasian...
High levels of the cholesterol metabolite 27-hydroxycholesterol seem to function like estrogen and may independently drive the growth of breast cancer, according to the findings of a preclinical study by Nelson et al published in Science. They also found a possible connection between...
The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) B-31 trial suggested that efficacy of adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) extended to patients with HER2-negative breast cancer. In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Pogue-Geile et al identified and...
In a brief communication published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Akbari et al reported finding a higher frequency of PPM1D mutations in circulating white blood cells from women with ovarian cancer vs controls, higher mortality associated with the mutation in women with ovarian...
Compared to traditional mammography, three-dimensional (3D) mammography—known as digital breast tomosynthesis—found 22% more breast cancers and led to fewer call-backs in a large screening study at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, researchers reported today at the 99th...
In a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Wernli et al evaluated use of breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the community setting from 2005 to 2009. They found that although recommended use of MRI for screening of high-risk women is increasing, considerable progress is needed in...
In a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Stout et al assessed use of breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the community setting from 2000 to 2011. They found a steep increase in use in screening and surveillance, with most women not meeting American Cancer Society (ACS) criteria for...
In a randomized noninferiority trial (TARGIT-A) reported in The Lancet, Jayant S. Vaidya, PhD, and Michael Baum, MD, of University College London, and colleagues compared risk-adapted radiotherapy using single-dose targeted intraoperative radiotherapy vs fractionated external-beam radiotherapy in...
In the phase III Z1041 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Aman U. Buzdar, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues compared neoadjuvant therapy with FEC-75 (fluorouracil [5-FU], epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide) followed by paclitaxel plus trastuzumab (Herceptin) ...
The choice and timing of therapeutic interventions may significantly affect the quality of life of young breast cancer survivors in the short term, although other quality-of-life domains such as family relationships may not be negatively impacted after treatment. These findings were reported by...
In a study reported in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Mei-Yin C. Polley, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute, and colleagues assessed intralaboratory and interlaboratory variability in Ki67 scoring. They found high intralaboratory reproducibility but only moderate interlaboratory...
In a study reported in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, Emma C. Fields, MD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and colleagues analyzed the stage-specific management of male breast cancer with surgery and radiation therapy and related them to outcomes...
A single session of intraoperative radiotherapy with electrons permits delivery of a radiotherapy dose equivalent to that of conventional postoperative whole-breast irradiation. In the ELIOT trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Umberto Veronesi, MD, of the European Institute of Oncology, and...
Researchers seeking to determine why breast cancers are more deadly in young women found that although only a minority of young women experience long delays between the time they detect a breast abnormality and the time they receive a diagnosis, delays in seeking care are more common in women with...
Available data suggest that risk of febrile neutropenia is greatest during the first two cycles of chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Maureen J. Aarts of Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, and colleagues...
Most patients with estrogen receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer who initially respond to endocrine treatments will eventually develop resistance to the therapies. A study by Ido Wolf, MD, Head of the Oncology Department at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel, and colleagues...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine, Zehra B. Omer, BA, of Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues assessed how the description of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) affected selection of treatment options. They found significant differences in treatment...
A recent study by Darby and colleagues showed a significant linear increase in risk for major coronary events according to mean cardiac dose of radiation (7.4% per Gy) in patients receiving radiation therapy for breast cancer between 1958 and 2001. In an analysis reported in a research letter...
The inclusion of multiple hormones—rather than just adding one or two individually—in breast cancer risk prediction models may improve prediction of the disease and could help better identify women who would benefit from chemoprevention, according to a study by Shelley S. Tworoger, PhD, ...
In a Canadian study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Kerry S. Courneya, PhD, of the University of Alberta, and colleagues assessed the impact of different levels of physical exercise on physical functioning in women receiving adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer....
The longer a woman with breast cancer has to travel to reach a comprehensive cancer center, the more likely she is to have later-stage disease at diagnosis, and the more likely she is to have a mastectomy, according to study by medical student Krishan Jethwa and colleagues from the University of...
Measuring the presence and amount of the protein Vav2 may help identify breast precancers that will progress to invasive cancers, according to results presented at the 12th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held October 27 to 30 in National Harbor,...
Since 1994, many thousands of women with breast cancer from families severely affected with the disease have been tested for inherited mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, and the vast majority of those patients were told that their gene sequences were normal. With the development of modern genomics...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Patricia G. Moorman, PhD, of Duke University Medical Center, and colleagues evaluated risk of ovarian and breast cancer among oral contraceptive users with BRCA1/2 mutations. The study showed a significantly reduced risk of ovarian...
Patient assistance programs can help patients with breast cancer meet a variety of needs that might otherwise interfere with getting recommended adjuvant therapies such as radiation, chemotherapy, and hormonal treatments, according to a study published recently in the online edition of...
In patients with heavily pretreated advanced BRCA-related breast and ovarian cancers, the investigational poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor BMN673 produced an objective response rate of more than 40% and delayed disease progression by more than 6 months, according to a multicenter phase ...
LEE011, an investigational small-molecule inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6, showed promising results in drug-resistant melanoma and drug-resistant breast cancer when tested in combination with other targeted therapies, according to findings presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC...
Risk and risk factors for congestive heart failure in older breast cancer patients receiving trastuzumab have not been clearly defined. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mariana Chavez-MacGregor, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Catherine Schairer, PhD, from the National Cancer Institute, and colleagues investigated risk factors associated with inflammatory breast cancer. Among their findings was that high body mass index (BMI) increased inflammatory ...