Marie-Jeanne T.F.D. Vrancken Peeters, MD, PhD, on Omitting Breast Surgery: Results of the MICRA Trial
2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
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).
Nadine M. Tung, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, discusses cisplatin vs doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide (AC) as neoadjuvant treatment in BRCA-mutation carriers with HER2-negative breast cancer. Although cisplatin as a single agent shows activity in this setting, the pathologic complete response with this agent alone is not higher than that with standard AC chemotherapy (Abstract GS6-03).
Joerg Heil, MD, PhD, of the University Hospital Heidelberg, discusses findings on how accurately this technique can diagnose residual disease and pathologic complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer. These data may help tailor, de-escalate, and potentially avoid unnecessary surgeries (Abstract GS5-03).
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.
Terry P. Mamounas, MD, MPH, of Orlando Health UF Health Cancer Center, discusses 10-year results from NRG Oncology/NSABP B-42, which showed that, for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer who have completed previous adjuvant therapy with an aromatase inhibitor or with tamoxifen followed by an aromatase inhibitor, extended treatment with letrozole improved disease-free survival (Abstract GS4-01).
Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses phase II findings on patients receiving T-DM1 monotherapy as adjuvant treatment for stage I HER2-positive breast cancer, a regimen associated with few recurrences in the study population (Abstract GS1-05).