Nicholas C. Turner, MD, PhD, on ctDNA Testing to Direct Targeted Therapies in Advanced Breast Cancer
2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
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).
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).
Hope S. Rugo, MD, of the University of California San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses trial data on margetuximab plus chemotherapy, which improved progression-free survival in patients with previously treated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer when compared with trastuzumab plus chemotherapy. Maturing data comparing overall survival also provides new insights (Abstract GS1-02).
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?
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).
Luca Gianni, MD, of the Fondazione Michelangelo, discusses findings from the NeoTRIP trial on pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant treatment with or without atezolizumab in triple-negative, early high-risk, and locally advanced breast cancer (Abstract GS3-04).
