Madeleine M.A. Tilanus-Linthorst, MD, PhD, of Erasmus University, reports data from the first randomized trial comparing MRI breast cancer screening with mammography in women with a familial risk. Because MRI screening detected cancer at an earlier stage, it might reduce the use of adjuvant chemotherapy and decrease breast cancer–related mortality (Abstract GS4-07).
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).
Javier Cortes, MD, PhD, of the IOB Institute of Oncology, discusses study findings that suggested pembrolizumab offered a prolonged survival benefit compared to chemotherapy for a subset of patients with previously treated metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. In the trial, high tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes were significantly associated with better clinical outcomes with the checkpoint inhibitor.
Marie-Jeanne T.F.D. Vrancken Peeters, MD, PhD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, discusses an interim study analysis showing that ultrasound-guided core biopsies of the breast in patients with excellent response on MRI after neoadjuvant systemic therapy may not be accurate enough to safely select patients with pathologic complete response for omission of surgery (Abstract GS5-06).
Nicholas C. Turner, MD, PhD, of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, discusses findings from the plasmaMATCH trial, which showed that circulating tumor DNA testing offers accurate tumor genotyping to identify patients with rare HER2 and AKT1 mutations and may enable matching them with targeted treatments (Abstract GS3-06).
