ASCO Breast Cancer Spotlight

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.

Herceptin, a biosimilar version of trastuzumab, produced comparable efficacy rates and safety profile as trastuzumab in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, according to research presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Neratinib, an experimental TKI being developed for breast cancer, achieved a 36% clinical benefit rate in a phase II trial, according to a poster presented June 5, 2016 at the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.

When tested in heavily pretreated patients with refractory, hormone-receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, abemaciclib, a CDK4/6 inhibitor, produced a positive response rate of approximately 20%.

A joint analysis of the "ABC" trials comparing anthracycline versus non-anthracycline treatment in patients with high-risk, HER2-negative breast cancer has failed to demonstrate non-inferiority of the non-anthracycline regimen.