HER2 Breast Cancer

Tumor reduction for patients with ER-positive breast cancer can be achieved with endocrine therapy and can possibly avoid the need for chemotherapy or even surgery in some patients. Hyman B. Muss, MD, who presented at the 2018 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, said that deciding how long to continue this therapy can be tricky, however.

Uttara Nayar, PhD, shares the findings of recent studies in patients with ER+ breast cancer. Findings have shown that acquired HER2 mutations lead to endocrine resistance, the most frequent cause of breast cancer mortality in the country.

HER2-positive breast cancer has gone from "worst to first" because of the success of the monoclonal antibody drug trastuzumab in combination with chemotherapy. 

An axillary lymph node dissection can be avoided for patients with large, operable tumors in the breast, no clinical signs of cancer in the axillary nodes before being treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and no signs of cancer following a sentinel lymph node biopsy during surgery.

Welela Tereffe, MD, discusses the current state of RT in breast cancer and emphasized the importance of a multidisciplinary approach.

According to the results of a study recently published in <em>JAMA Oncology,</em>&nbsp;high breast density surpasses other known risk factors for developing breast cancer, including family history of the disease, personal history of benign lesions, and later-in-life childbirth.

Melanie E. Royce, MD, PhD,&nbsp;discusses the recent progress in the landscape of HER2-positive breast cancer and what she envisions future treatment approaches will be for patients.&nbsp;

Joyce A. O&rsquo;Shaughnessy, MD, addresses some of the key issues in breast cancer and shared her expert insight on where TNBC treatment is headed based on recent findings.

A prospective study is looking at whether breast cancer surgery can be eliminated in patients who respond well to neoadjuvant systemic therapy.

Measuring molecular biomarkers after metastasis could inform treatment decisions for women with breast cancer that has spread to the brain.

A pre-planned subgroup analysis of data from the MONALEESA-2 trial demonstrated similar clinical benefit and safety profiles in elderly patients compared to younger patients with HR+/HER2-advanced breast cancer, supporting a paradigm shift in the future medical management of these patients from the current standard of letrozole to combined treatment of letrozole plus ribociclib.

Yu (Amy) Zong, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, discusses a meta-analysis of nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel as neoadjuvant chemotherapy of breast cancer.&nbsp;

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with nanoparticle albumin-bound nab-paclitaxel has demonstrated substantial activity across major subgroups of breast cancer, a meta-analysis of clinical trials showed.

The results of a recent randomized study showed anti-HER2 DC1 vaccination to be a safe and immunogenic treatment to induce tumor-specific T-cell responses in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

Sibylle Loibl, MD, PhD, discusses the most recent subanalysis of the GeparSepto trial, how the drugs match up in terms of toxicities, and a separate set of data looking at patients with breast cancer who are also pregnant.

Julia White, MD, discusses the upcoming phase II trial, the toxicities associated with the treatment, and the potential for control of these metastases. According to White, the trial is still accruing its 143 patients.

Julia White, MD, professor of Radiation Oncology, Ohio State University, discusses a phase II study of whole brain radiotherapy with concurrent lapatinib in patients with brain metasteses from HER2-positive breast cancer.

Mark D. Pegram, MD, director of the Breast Cancer Oncology Program, Stanford Women&rsquo;s Cancer Center, co-director of Molecular Therapeutics Program, Stanford Medicine, discusses a phase II trial looking at ONT-380 in HER2+ breast cancer.&nbsp;

The phase II HERMIONE trial was halted after the antibody-drug conjugate MM-302 combined with trastuzumab (Herceptin) failed to improve progression-free survival (PFS) versus chemotherapy plus trastuzumab in patents with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer who had previously received trastuzumab, pertuzumab (Perjeta), and ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1, Kadcyla).

The 2017 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, to be held March 9 to 12 at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, welcomes an expanded group of program chairs, and a newly established curriculum committee made up of a multidisciplinary group of breast cancer specialists.

An attempt to strengthen neoadjuvant treatment of patients with locally advanced HR-positive and HER2-positive breast cancer by adding estrogen deprivation therapy to a standard regimen failed to significantly improve response rates.

Higher levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were associated with improvements in overall survival (OS) for patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer treated with docetaxel, trastuzumab (Herceptin), and pertuzumab (Perjeta).

Debu Tripathy, MD, chair, Breast Medical Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the potential for immunotherapy in the treatment of HER2+ breast cancer.

An expert panel, consisting of the College of American Pathologists, American Society for Clinical Pathology, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology&nbsp;issued comprehensive, evidence-based guidelines for clinicians and pathologists regarding the testing of HER2 status for patients with gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma.&nbsp;

In an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Frankie Holmes, MD, discusses HER2-directed therapy with trastuzumab (Herceptin) and pertuzumab (Perjeta).