BREAST CANCER

The combination of pembrolizumab with chemotherapy demonstrated a benefit in terms of pathological complete response when used as neoadjuvant therapy compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with triple-negative breast cancer, according to interim results of the pivotal phase III KEYNOTE-522 trial.

Neratinib has received approval from Health Canada for the treatment of patients with early-stage, hormone receptor&ndash;positive, HER2-overexpressed/amplified breast cancer in the extended adjuvant setting. The agent should be given to patients 1 year after completing trastuzumab-based adjuvant therapy.<br /> &nbsp;

Breast Cancer

Jane Lowe Meisel, MD, reviewed systemic therapy options for treating patients with breast cancer with a group of physicians during a&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology&nbsp;</em>live case-based peer perspectives discussion. Meisel explained the treatment considerations she makes for treating patients with breast cancer during the dinner event in terms of 2 case studies.

General Cancer

The SOLAR-1 findings were presented during a satellite symposium at the 2019 European Society for Medical Oncology Breast Cancer Annual Congress in Berlin, Germany.&nbsp;The trial demonstrated the role of&nbsp;<em>PIK3CA&nbsp;</em>as a predictive marker for alpelisib&rsquo;s clinical efficacy, said Peter A. Fasching, MD, associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, during the symposium.

Preventive strategies for severe diarrhea associated with adjuvant treatment with neratinib improved tolerability for the agent when patients received budesonide or colestipol-with-loperamide prophylaxis, according to findings from the CONTROL study.