Madeleine M.A. Tilanus-Linthorst, MD, PhD, on MRI vs Mammography: Comparing Cost and Effectiveness
2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
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).
Jack Cuzick, PhD, of Queen Mary University of London, discusses the substantially greater benefits of anastrozole as compared with tamoxifen in terms of preventing breast cancer, with no increase in fractures or other reported serious side effects (Abstract GS4-04).
Gerardo Antonio Umanzor Funez, MD, of Liga Contra El Cáncer, discusses phase III findings on intravenous (IV) paclitaxel and oral paclitaxel plus encequidar (a novel P-gp inhibitor), the first orally administered taxane regimen shown to be superior to the IV formulation in terms of response and survival with less neuropathy (Abstract GS6-01).
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).
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).
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.
