BREAST CANCER

Eribulin combination strategies are based on scientific evidence, rather than empirical evidence, and could provide a new chemotherapy-based backbone in the treatment paradigm of the malignancy, according to Christopher Twelves, MD.

Whitworth says that while it is generally perceived that the ER-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer patient population is the luminal subtype, 1 of every 5 of those patients would actually considered basal subtype.

Bear discusses studies adding treatments to chemotherapy in order to increase the pathological complete response (pCR) rate and the difficulties of translating those benefits into better overall survival (OS) rates for patients with breast cancer.

Winer says patients who do well on carboplatin and show both a good pathologic complete response and good disease free survival may be patients who have refractory disease and are responding well to the treatment, while others may be patients who were bound to do well regardless.

Seidman says currently there is not a HER2 histochemical test for gene amplification or signatures to best select patients for either CDK46 or MTOR inhibitor, as well for PI3 kinase inhibition.

An adjuvant combination of trastuzumab (Herceptin) and paclitaxel could change the treatment paradigm for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, according to Kimberly L. Blackwell, MD.

Triple Negative Breast Cancer with Andrew Seidman, MD and Joyce O'Shaughnessy, MD

Palbociclib (Ibrance) has been approved by the FDA for use in combination with fulvestrant in pretreated patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer.

Twelves says a common misconception in breast cancer is that with the current flood of new treatments in HER2-positive breast cancer, the issue of breast cancer overall has been largely addressed.

Hamilton says there are currently not very many "good" drugs for treating these metastases. She adds that the mainstay for treating these metastases is usually some form of radiation therapy, such as whole brain radiation.

Beitsch says that while having a study that incorporates several thousands of patients will potentially produce statistically significant results, these larger groups may not account for subtypes in each patient's individual cancer.

The FDA has granted sacituzumab govitecan (IMMU-132) breakthrough therapy designation for the treatment of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) following at least 2 treatments for metastatic disease, according to Immunomedics, the manufacturer of the investigational antibody-drug conjugate.

Carey Anders, MD, assistant professor for the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, UNC Chapel Hill, discusses the exclusion of patients with breast cancer who have developed brain metastases from clinical trials.

Single-dose fosaprepitant dimeglumine (Emend for injection) in combination with antiemetic agents has been approved by the FDA for the preventing

Approximately 33% of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer have also been found to have a luminal subtype resistant to chemotherapy and trastuzumab. Peter Beitsch, MD, discusses the triplet neoadjuvant regimen of pertuzumab, trastuzumab, and chemotherapy, and its effect on the subtype in the Neoadjuvant Breast Registry Symphony Trial (NBRST) study.

A team of researchers at both the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Johns Hopkins Medical Institute have discovered that cancer metastization occurs through the migration of malignant cells in groups, rather than single cells, in a recent study.

Patrick Borgen, MD, speaks out on the recently approved USPSTF breast cancer screening guidelines.