BREAST CANCER

Two HER2-targeting regimens anchored by T-DM1 failed to outperform the standard strategy in women with previously untreated advanced HER2-positive breast cancer, dealing a blow to efforts to move the drug into frontline settings.

More breast cancer lesions were diagnosed in women with dense breasts when ultrasound screening was conducted in conjunction with mammography compared with mammography alone.

An international team of investigators is evaluating the novel topoisomerase-1 inhibitor etirinotecan pegol in patients with metastatic breast cancer, and at the same time evaluating target-specific biomarkers in CTCs.

A potential pathogenic role for the androgen receptor (AR) exists for some breast cancer (BC) subtypes according to 2 new studies presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) 2014.

An ongoing clinical trial will determine whether the addition of weekly nab-paclitaxel to gemcitabine or carboplatin improves PFS versus the gemcitabine-carboplatin doublet as first-line therapy for patients with metastatic TNBC.

Beth Overmoyer, MD, director, Inflammatory Breast Cancer Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses obesity as a risk factor for inflammatory breast cancer.

William J. Gradishar, MD, discusses advances in the last year in the treatment of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

Edith A. Perez, MD, the deputy director at large for the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, comments on immune checkpoint inhibition for the treatment of breast cancer.

Women undergoing therapy for breast cancer are at increased risk for loss of bone mineral density (BMD) and fractures because of the use of adjuvant estrogen-lowering therapies (ie, aromatase inhibitors).

Most women are aware that bone density frequently decreases with age and natural menopause, but many women do not know that breast cancer treatments can reduce bone density and increase the risk of fracture.

Bone-targeted agents may help to minimize complications associated with osseous metastases, such as skeletal-related events, but ongoing compliance and adherence to these therapies are important to ensure they provide the desired benefit.

Denise A. Yardley, MD, senior investigator, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, on the treatment of patients with breast cancer with bone health issues.

Virginia G. Kaklamani, MD, professor of medicine, University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio, discusses bone health in women with breast cancer.

A 12-gene test for breast cancer recurrence after ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) distinguished high- and intermediate- risk patients from those with a low risk. These results were presented at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Findings from a long-term analysis of the Women’s Intervention Nutrition Study (WINS) show that the deaths of women with hormone receptor–negative breast cancers were reduced by up to 54% when they followed a program to reduce their dietary fat intake.

Frontline treatment with everolimus (Afinitor) combined with trastuzumab (Herceptin) and paclitaxel failed to delay disease progression versus trastuzumab and paclitaxel alone in patients with HER2-positive advanced breast cancer.

Fulvestrant (Faslodex) improved overall survival (OS) by 5.7 months compared with anastrozole as a frontline treatment for postmenopausal women with HR-positive metastatic breast cancer. These findings from the phase II FIRST trial were presented at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

John F. R. Robertson, MD, discusses overall survival data from the phase II FIRST study, which looked at fulvestrant as first-line therapy for patients with advanced breast cancer.

Eileen Rakovitch, MD, associate professor, radiation oncologist, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, discusses predicting risk of recurrence in women with DCIS.

A 25-gene hereditary cancer panel can increase the identification of deleterious mutations by almost 70%, over testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) or Lynch syndrome alone.

Naoto Tada Ueno, MD, PhD, FACP, from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses counting circulating tumor cells for prognostic reasons.

Denise A. Yardley, MD, from Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses toxicities associated with treatment with PI3K inhibitors for breast cancer.

Five years of tamoxifen continues to offer protection against breast cancer— reducing the risk of breast cancer by 29% in otherwise healthy women at high risk of the disease who have been followed now for 16 to 22 years.

Older patients with moderate- or high-risk breast cancer had a similar disease-free survival with the bisphosphonate therapy ibandronate alone or in combination with capecitabine, according Gunter von Minckwitz, MD, who reported the results at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Women with HR+ breast cancer who remained premenopausal after receiving chemotherapy had a lower risk of disease recurrence when adding ovarian suppression to adjuvant exemestane or—to a lesser extent—tamoxifen, compared with standard tamoxifen alone.