Belinda Kingston, MB ChB, on the Genomic Landscape of Breast Cancer Based on ctDNA Analysis
2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
Belinda Kingston, MB ChB, of the Institute of Cancer Research London, discusses next-generation sequencing results from the plasmaMATCH trial, including the incidence of gene alterations overall, as well as the associations with clinical and pathologic features that may help direct treatment decisions (Abstract GS3-07).
Ariella B. Hanker, PhD, of UT Southwestern Medical Center, discusses data showing that breast cancers expressing co-occurring HER2 and HER3 mutations may require the addition of a phosphoinositide 3-kinase alpha inhibitor to a HER2 tyrosine kinase inhibitor (Abstract GS6-04).
Rowan T. Chlebowski, MD, PhD, of the Lundquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, discusses the long-term influence of using estrogen plus progestin or estrogen alone on breast cancer incidence and mortality (Abstract GS5-00).
Hongchao Pan, PhD, of the University of Oxford, discusses an analysis of 86,000 women in the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group database, which showed that the risk of distant recurrence 20 years after a diagnosis of node-negative, estrogen receptor–negative early-stage breast cancer in women who discontinued endocrine therapy at 5 years is likely to be about a third lower now than in his group’s previous report (Abstract GS2-04).
Joseph Sparano, MD, of the Montefiore Medical Center, discusses three challenges:
- How can gene-expression profiles and other diagnostic tests be used to guide the use of adjuvant systemic therapy?
- Is it time to reappraise active surveillance?
- Are there diagnostic and therapeutic strategies that can identify tumors at highest risk of metastasis, and novel therapies that can block the spread of disease?
Icro Meattini, MD, of the University of Florence, discusses study findings that showed the less-invasive partial-breast irradiation using intensity-modulated radiotherapy after surgery may be an acceptable choice for patients with early breast cancer, as it is cost-effective, safe, and efficacious when compared with whole-breast irradiation (Abstract GS4-06).