Breast Cancer

Alberto J. Montero, MD, Department of Hematology and Oncology at Cleveland Clinic, discusses the PERTAIN study in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-positive, locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. The study looks at the impact of adding pertuzumab (Perjeta) to trastuzumab (Herceptin) in aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy.

Nab-paclitaxel provides more benefits than paclitaxel for certain subsets of patients with breast cancer.

Ruth O’Regan, MD, division head of Hematology and Oncology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, discusses BELLE-3, a phase III study of buparlisib (BKM120) plus fulvestrant (Faslodex) in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative, locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer, who progressed on or after mTOR inhibitor-based treatment and were treated with an aromatase inhibitor.

Robert E. Coleman, MBBS, MD, FRCP, FRCPE, professor of Medical Oncology and head of the Academic Unit of Clinical Oncology at the University of Sheffield, discusses the safety findings from the 10-year follow-up of the adjuvant treatment with zoledronic acid (ZOL) in stage II/III breast cancer, which was studied in the AZURE trial.

Steven Buechler, PhD, Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Notre Dame, discusses independent validation of the EarlyR gene signature in the Breast International Group (BIG) 1-98 study. This randomized, double-blind, phase III trial compared letrozole with tamoxifen as an adjuvant endocrine therapy for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive, early breast cancer

Erik J. Blok, MD, Department of Medical Oncology at Leiden University Medical Center, discusses the duration of adjuvant endocrine therapy. Blok claims that there is no breast cancer survival benefit in extending adjuvant letrozole treatment from 2.5 to 5 years.

Cecile Pizot, biostatistician in epidemiology at the International Prevention Research Institute, discusses the changes in mortality rates in breast cancer around the world. In a study on 47 countries, 39 saw breast cancer mortality rates decline, but mortality rates were on the rise in Latin American and Asian countries.

Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the possibility of using vaccines as a preventative measure for breast cancer, particularly to fight recurrence.

A prophylactic treatment of loperamide plus budesonide reduced the rate of grade 3 diarrhea associated with neratinib.

An investigation of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor lapatinib plus whole-brain radiotherapy has entered into a phase II trial in the treatment of patients with brain metastases from HER2-positive breast cancer.

Adam M. Brufsky, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine, associate chief of Hematology/Oncology, co-director of the Comprehensive Breast Care Center, associate director of Clinical Investigation, University of Pittsburgh, discusses combining cobimetinib and paclitaxel as a first-line treatment in patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer.

Paul Kelly Marcom, MD, discusses the future landscape of HR-positive breast cancer, highlighting the influence of CDK4/6 inhibitors and targeted agent/endocrine therapy combinations.

Lisa Carey, MD, discusses the current state of the science in triple-negative breast cancer, the potential for immunotherapy, and future treatment approaches she anticipates in the coming years.

Patients with breast cancer who received radiation therapy after undergoing a mastectomy reported increased complications and lower satisfaction.

The FDA has granted a priority review to a supplemental new drug application supporting the conversation of the accelerated approval of palbociclib (Ibrance) to a full approval for use in combination with letrozole as a frontline treatment for postmenopausal women with ER-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer.

The FDA has approved the marketing of AeroForm, a new system for soft tissue expansion in 2-stage breast reconstruction following mastectomy, and in the treatment of underdeveloped breasts and soft tissue deformities.

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

The neoadjuvant combination of CDK4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib plus anastrazole may represent a novel therapeutic option for patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer.

Results of a clinical trial show that 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.

A continuous low-dose of ribociclib demonstrated both preliminary activity and an acceptable safety profile when compared with an intermittent dose of ribociclib when combined with fulvestrant in the treatment of postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.

Testing for BRCA1 methylation or mRNA silencing did not predict a better response to carboplatin over docetaxel in patients with advanced triple-negative or BRCA1/2 breast cancer.

Brock Schroeder, PhD, senior director, Medical and Scientific Affairs at bioTheranostics, discusses findings regarding the Breast Cancer Index in predicting patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer at high risk of recurrence.

It was not that long ago that decisions regarding cancer management were essentially made exclusively by the treating physician, with patients simply being informed of “the plan” for their treatment.

The combination of nab-paclitaxel and carboplatin reduced the risk of progression or death by 40% compared with 2 other chemotherapy doublets as a frontline therapy for patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Treatment with pembrolizumab continued to show a consistent durable benefit with an additional year of follow-up for heavily pretreated patients with recurrent PD-L1-positive metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Howard A. "Skip" Burris, MD, president of Clinical Operations and chief medical officer at Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses updated findings from the MONALEESA-2 trial, which explored first-line treatment with ribociclib plus letrozole in patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, associate director, Clinical Research, Breast Oncology, Susan F. Smith Center for Women's Cancers, senior physician, instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses a phase Ib/II trial exploring eribulin mesylate (Halaven) in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

The combination of pembrolizumab and eribulin demonstrated a 33.3% objective response rate for patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who received 0 to 2 prior lines of therapy.

The artificial intelligence computer program Watson for Oncology (WFO) achieved a high degree of concordance with tumor board recommendations in a double-blinded validation study in Bengaluru, India, according to results presented at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).

Aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy may pose a risk of cardiovascular disease to postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer, raising the possibility of a long-term complication in an era of growing survivorship when patients are treated with estrogen-targeting drugs for years.