BREAST CANCER

More options are now available for combining and sequencing therapy for patients with estrogen (ER)–positive metastatic breast cancer (mBC), including the deployment of CDK4/6 inhibitors, as clinicians endeavor to individualize the sequencing of therapies to improve patient outcomes, according to Maura N. Dickler, MD.

Clifford A. Hudis, MD, CEO of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, discusses the significance of the relationship between breast cancer and obesity.

When it comes to breast cancer treatments, sometimes less is more, according to Hope S. Rugo, MD.

A better understanding of how patients with triple-negative breast cancer respond to neoadjuvant therapy regimens is helping to further individualize therapy for patients while also informing treatment decisions in the adjuvant setting.

The addition of chemotherapy to standard hormonal therapy does not improve survival rates for patients with early breast cancer who are at low-risk for recurrence using the 21-gene recurrence score.

Angela M. DeMichele, MD, professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania, discusses the biology of triple negative breast cancer and the significant role of DNA repair.

Phase III results of the KRISTINE trial demonstrated that patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer had a significantly higher pathological complete response (pCR) rate when they received the neoadjuvant regimen of docetaxel, carboplatin, and trastuzumab plus pertuzumab (TCH+P) versus trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) plus pertuzumab (T-DM1+P).  

As I write this, the 2016 ASCO conference has just concluded in Chicago. And, as is typical with this event, the amount and level of groundbreaking research and information presented at this year's conference is nothing less than staggering in its scope, innovation, and promise.

Breast cancer has traditionally not been viewed as immunogenic. There is now a growing body of evidence that immune infiltration has a prognostic role in al breast cancer subtypes, and predicts improved clinical outcome in triple-negative and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive tumors.

For patients with early-stage invasive breast cancer and known estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2 status, ASCO's February 2016 release of their evidence-based recommendations helped define appropriate use of biomarker assay results in guiding adjuvant treatment decisions.

A number of small changes that were specific to neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies were made to the NCCN breast cancer guidelines, additionally, the recommended treatments for patients with ER-positive disease were also modified.

Allison W. Kurian, MD, MSc, associate professor of Medicine and of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University School of Medicine, discusses two ongoing trials utilizing multi-gene panels to uncover previously undetected risks in patients with breast and ovarian cancer.

Preliminary data shows an anthracycline/taxane-based chemotherapy regimen (TaxAC) could be superior to docetaxal plus cyclophosphamide in patients with breast cancer.

Multigene panel testing may uncover new risks in breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

The combination of T-DM1 and pertuzumab was superior to the combination of paclitaxel and trastuzumab as neoadjuvant treatment for women with HER2-positive breast cancer.

TNFSF11, also known as RANKL, shows potential as a genetic pathway in the prevention of breast cancer for women carrying BRCA1 mutations. Early study findings, published in Nature Medicine, show that a drug currently used in the treatment of osteoporosis, denosumab (Xgeva)-an inhibitor of RANKL-could also be used for the prevention and delay of tumor growth for BRCA1-mutation carriers.

Single-agent abemaciclib as well as taselisib in combination with fulvestrant (Faslodex) could both play a substantial role in breast cancer in the near future, says Maura Dickler, MD.

Joanne Blum, MD, PhD, FACP, physician, Texas Oncology, discusses the combination of fulvestrant and palbociclib (Ibrance) in patients with breast cancer, as well as the synergy fulvestrant has with other CDK4/6 inhibitors.

A new nationwide research project is encouraging patients to share tumor samples and clinical information with researchers in the hope that it will lead to discoveries for new and improved treatment options and, ultimately, a cure, for metastatic breast cancer.

Extending aromatase inhibitor (AI) treatment to 10 years post-treatment reduced the risk of recurrence in women with early-stage HR-positive breast cancer by more than a third. Findings of the MA.17R trial also showed that adjuvant therapy extension did not create any new toxicities or quality of life complications for patients.

Palbociclib (Ibrance), when added to letrozole, increased the median progression-free survival (PFS) rate in patients with ER-positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer by >10 months, according to results from the phase III PALOMA-2 trial presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Maura N. Dickler, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses next steps with abemaciclib following the results of the single-arm MONARCH 1 trial.

In patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer, data from a phase III trial has shown a significantly higher pathological complete response (pCR) rate with neoadjuvant docetaxel plus carboplatin plus trastuzumab plus pertuzumab versus trastuzumab emtansine plus pertuzumab.

Durvalumab, an investigational PD-L1 targeting drug, is the subject of a unique ongoing basket trial being conducted by the National Institutes of Health, and was part of a single arm phase I combination therapy study of the drug in 19 patients with cervical cancer, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), ovarian cancer, or uterine leiomyosarcoma.

Findings from a population-based study reported at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting revealed that young black women with breast cancer are much less likely to undergo testing for the BRCA gene or to get risk reducing prophylactic mastectomy or salpingo-oophorectomy than other women.