BREAST CANCER

HER2+ Early-Stage Breast Cancer: Perioperative Approaches

Only 1 treatment option is currently&nbsp;available for treating&nbsp;patients with metastatic germline&nbsp;<em>BRCA</em>-mutated triple-negative&nbsp;breast cancer, but research&nbsp;into novel therapies, including PI3K/conjugates could soon result in a host of new therapies for this hard-to-treat disease.

Recurrent Metastatic ER+ Breast Cancer

The primary endpoint for the&nbsp;phase III SOLAR-1 trial has been met, with&nbsp;improved progression-free survival seen with the&nbsp;combination of&nbsp;alpelisib and&nbsp;fulvestrant compared with&nbsp;fulvestrant alone in postmenopausal women and men with HR-positive, HER2-negative,&nbsp;<em>PIK3CA</em>-mutant advanced or metastatic breast cancer that had progressed after aromatase inhibitor treatment with or without a CDK4/6 inhibitor.

Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Mesothelin-targeted chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy has shown early evidence of efficacy in a phase I trial of patients with malignant pleural disease and mesothelioma,&nbsp;non&ndash;small cell lung cancer, or breast cancer. Additionally, significant responses were seen in patients who went on to receive subsequent PD-1 checkpoint inhibition treatment.

Kevin Kalinsky, MD, MS, assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University, discusses the results from a trial in HER2-positive breast cancer that was presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The study looked at the use of trastuzumab (Herceptin) in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor in patients that were either PD-L1-positive or negative.

The European Union has approved&nbsp;PF-05280014 (Trazimera), a biosimilar for trastuzumab (Herceptin), to treat&nbsp;patients with HER2 overexpressing metastatic or early breast cancer and HER2 overexpressing metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

Magtrace and Sentimag Magnetic Localization System, which uses magnetic detection to identify sentinel lymph nodes for surgical removal in women&nbsp;undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer, has gained approval from the FDA.

A biologics license application for sacituzumab govitecan has been granted a priority review by the FDA&nbsp;for the treatment of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer following at least 2 prior therapies for metastatic disease, Immunomedics, the manufacturer of the antibody-drug conjugate, has announced.

Upfront&nbsp;ribociclib (Kisqali) has been granted approval by the FDA&nbsp;for use in combination with an aromatase inhibitor (AI) for the treatment of pre/perimenopausal or postmenopausal women with HR-positive/HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer.&nbsp;Additionally, ribociclib was approved in combination with fulvestrant for postmenopausal women with HR-positive/HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer.