BREAST CANCER

The Breast Cancer Weight Loss Study is looking to identify the relationship between obesity and recurrence in breast cancer through a phone-based weight loss intervention program.

Abemaciclib penetrated brain metastases and had antitumor activity in patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer, preliminary evidence suggests.

Gunter von Minckwitz, MD, PhD, president of the German Breast Group in Neu-Isenburg, Germany, discusses results from the large phase III APHINITY trial, which explored the addition of pertuzumab (Perjeta) to adjuvant trastuzumab and chemotherapy for patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.

Rachel A. Freedman, MD, MPH, discusses a phase II trial of neratinib plus capecitabine for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer brain metastases.

In patients with heavily pretreated metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, pembrolizumab showed durable antitumor activity, according to findings from cohort A of the phase II KEYNOTE-086 trial.

Harold J. Burstein, MD, PhD, institute physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, associate professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses a survey of how clinicians use genomic assays to assist in decision-making regarding the use of neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with ER-positive/HER2-negative early breast cancer.

Alexandra S. Zimmer, MD, staff clinician, Women's Malignancies Branch, National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research, discusses the promising data seen thus far with olaparib (Lynparza) for the treatment of HER2-negative breast cancer.

Psychological intervention can substantially lower fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) in survivors, improving their quality of life, anxiety, and cancer-specific distress.

Ribociclib has been recommended for approval by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, a part of the European Medicines Agency, for use in combination with an aromatase inhibitor as a first-line treatment for postmenopausal women with HR-positive /HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.<br /> &nbsp;

Targeted therapy through the use of antibody&ndash;drug conjugates holds great promise for the treatment of many malignancies, in particular, breast cancer.

Sylvia Adams, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses phase II results from cohort A of the KEYNOTE-086 trial, which explored pembrolizumab monotherapy for previously treated metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

C. Kent Osborne, MD, outlines&nbsp;current strategies for overcoming resistance to HER2-targeted agents in early breast cancer.

According to early results from the phase III APHINITY trial, the addition of pertuzumab (Perjeta) to standard postoperative trastuzumab (Herceptin) therapy for patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer slightly improved the rate of recurrence overall but had a greater benefit for individuals with higher-risk disease.

A retrospective, multicenter study of 1207 women treated for non-metastatic breast cancer who then became pregnant showed that these survivors faced no greater risk of recurrence or death than their counterparts who underwent treatment but did not become pregnant.

Adding the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy tripled the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate in multiple subtypes of HER2-negative breast cancer, according to results from the&nbsp;ongoing phase II I-SPY-2 clinical research program presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Peter Kaufman, MD, associate professor of Medicine, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, discusses the significance of the MONARCH 2 trial, which explored abemaciclib in combination with fulvestrant in patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who progressed on endocrine therapy during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.<br /> &nbsp;

Sunil Verma, MD, department head, Clinical Department of Oncology, Calgary Zone, medical director, Tom Baker Cancer Centre, discusses updated results of the phase III MONALEESA-2 trial of first-line ribociclib plus letrozole in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Debu Tripathy, MD, chair of Breast Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the phase II ABRAZO study of talazoparib following platinum or multiple cytotoxic regimens in advanced breast cancer patients with germline <em>BRCA</em> 1/2 mutations during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, associate director, clinical research, breast oncology, Susan F. Smith Center for Women&rsquo;s Cancers, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses interim results of a trial exploring abemaciclib for the treatment of brain metastases secondary to hormone receptor-positive HER2-negative breast cancer.

Denise Yardley, MD, senior investigator, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses the APHINITY trial, which compared chemotherapy plus trastuzumab plus placebo versus chemotherapy plus trastuzumab plus pertuzumab as adjuvant therapy in patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.

The risk of disease progression or death was reduced by 45% with the addition of abemaciclib to fulvestrant compared with that of fulvestrant alone in patients with previously treated HR-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer, according to findings presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Updated results from the phase III MONALEESA-2 trial presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting confirmed the benefit of frontline ribociclib (Kisqali) in combination with letrozole in patients with&nbsp;postmenopausal hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer. The combination showed a progression-free survival (PFS) benefit of 9.3 months compared with letrozole plus placebo.

It&rsquo;s been a busy month at the FDA. Here&rsquo;s a look back at all the news in the oncology field to come out of the FDA during the month of May.

Joyce A. O&rsquo;Shaughnessy, MD, chair of Breast Cancer Research and the Celebrating Women Chair in Breast Cancer at Baylor-Sammons Cancer Center, discusses the promise seen with abemaciclib for the treatment of breast cancer.

Hope S. Rugo, MD, discusses the differentiating factors of abemaciclib among the CDK 4/6 inhibitors for breast cancer treatment.