HER2 Breast Cancer

Patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer and brain metastases treated with the combination of tucatinib, trastuzumab, and capecitabine had significantly lengthened the time to deterioration of health-related quality of life, according to the results of an analysis of the HER2CLIMB clinical trial presented during the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

William J. Gradishar, MD, discussed the effect tucatinib had on central nervous system metastases in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

To identify which patients with HER2-positive breast cancer are most likely to respond to fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki, investigators used a novel HER2 quantitative continuous score to provide a better objective and quantitative assessment of HER2 expression, data presented during the 2020 San Antonio Beast Cancer Symposium show.

Patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer treated with fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki had continued to experience extended durable responses and overall survival rates, along with tolerable toxicity in the phase 2 DESTINY-Breast01 study for which data were presented during the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Despite having similar disease characteristics and treatment patterns, elderly patients with HER2-positive advanced breast cancer aged ≥ 70 years experienced shorter chemotherapy durations than patients under the age of 70, as well as, poorer overall survival, and increased rates of adverse events in a real-world study.

The most interesting developments and approvals in breast cancer treatment in the last year and expectations regarding data that will be presented on at the upcoming 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Hope Rugo, MD, discusses her key takeaways in the field of HER2-positive breast cancer.

Although the dual HER2 blockade combination is now considered a standard regimen for the treatment of patients with HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer, there are limited efficacy data regarding the use of the regimen in Asian populations.

A phase 3 study was initiated for a head-to-head comparison of trastuzumab deruxtecan versus T-DM1 as adjuvant treatment of a subset of patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, William J. Gradishar, MD, discussed the current treatment options for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, including the recently approved therapies from the FDA. He also shared his insights on treating patients with brain metastases, in particular.

During a recent tweet chat, Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, joined Targeted Oncology for the discussion of a 39-year-old woman with relapsed/refractory HR-negative/HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Until recently, few options existed for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who progressed on earlier lines of therapy. Recent approvals of 3 drug combinations offer new tools that may prolong life and control brain metastases across lines of therapy.

A number of targeted agents have been approved in the setting of metastatic breast cancer, which has allowed for more personalized treatment approaches and underscores the importance of genomic testing.

Although HER2 positivity has been identified as a predictive factor of response to chemotherapy, it remains controversial considering that responses to chemotherapy can vary in patients with certain disease characteristics.

Nancy U. Lin, MD, discusses the results from a substudy of HER2CLIMB looking at tucatinib plus trastuzumab and capecitabine in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer and brain metastases.

Delivering evidence-based state-of-the art cancer care in the management of hematologic and solid malignancies is the mainstay of the 38th Annual CFS®: Innovative Cancer Therapy for Tomorrow conference taking place virtually November 4 through 6, 2020.

“Dual targeting of HER2-positive tumors with [trastuzumab] and [lapatinib] is beneficial because of differing mechanisms of action and because of the well-characterized synergistic interaction between them in HER2 [breast cancer] models."

Statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in both progression-free survival and overall survival were observed with the addition of tucatinib to trastuzumab and capecitabine as treatment of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, irrespective of the presence of brain metastases.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, reviewed the 4 currently approved treatment options for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer and discussed how physicians could use the data to make treatment decisions in the adjuvant and neoadjuvant setting.

Nancy U. Lin, MD, discusses how she would use the HER2CLIMB regimen of tucatinib plus trastuzumab and capecitabine now that it has been approved for treatment of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.