Breast Cancer

Eribulin mesylate failed to show a statistically significant survival benefit compared with capecitabine in women with previously treated metastatic breast cancer.

Patients with triple-negative breast cancer who have residual disease after receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy have a series of genetic alterations that are clinically targetable and may warrant further study.

Kapil N. Bhalla, MD, from the University of Kansas Cancer Center, describes an in vivo study that examined treatment with histone deacetylase inhibitors in triple-negative breast cancer cells.

Stefan Aebi, MD, from the Luzerner Kantonsspital, Switzerland, discusses findings from the CALOR trial that examined the administration of adjuvant chemotherapy for women recurrent breast cancer.

Preliminary research suggests that in-vitro exposure to an HDAC inhibitor may sensitize triple-negative breast cancer cells to treatment with a PARP inhibitor and cisplatin.

Adjuvant chemotherapy improved survival rates in women with isolated local or regional breast cancer recurrence, according to results from the CALOR trial.

Postmenopausal women with advanced estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer lived longer when they received a 500-mg dose of fulvestrant as compared with a 250-mg dose.

Combining the investigational PD 0332991 with letrozole as first-line therapy extended progression-free survival in women with advanced estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer.

Sentinel lymph node surgery may provide a less-invasive alternative to axillary lymph node dissection for nodal staging in node-positive breast cancer.

Extending the duration of adjuvant tamoxifen treatment to 10 years was more effective than the standard 5 years of treatment in protecting against recurrence and death among women with ER+ breast cancer.

Judy C. Boughey, MD, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, discusses surgical techniques examined in the Z1071 study that could help minimize the false negative rates experienced with SLN surgery.

Richard Finn, MD, from the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, describes results from a phase II study that examined PD 0332991 in combination with letrozole for women with metastatic ER-positive breast cancer.

For the past 10 years, Matthew J.C. Ellis, MB BChir, PhD, has focused his research on exploring the breast cancer genome in partnerships with academic and government-funded centers in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The clinical subtyping of breast cancer appears to be coming into a golden era as an increased understanding of subtyping promises to help advance treatments and outcomes for patients.

José Baselga, MD, PhD, Physician-in-Chief, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, compares results from two trials analyzing the mTOR inhibitors temsirolimus and everolimus in breast cancer.

Erica L. Mayer, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, describes studies involving tivozanib, a potent VEGF receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor.

The pace of discovery in breast cancer research has been brisk in the past year, leading not only to the approval of several new therapies but also to clinical trial results with the potential to change practice.

Despite the trend toward targeted therapies, cytotoxic drugs remain a mainstay of metastatic breast cancer treatment, and new therapies in that class are needed.

Jeffrey N. Weitzel, MD, from City of Hope, discusses the need to develop combination strategies for patients with breast cancer, in order to overcome the resistance.

Older women with breast cancer who prefer less input from their physician when deciding on treatment are less likely to receive chemotherapy than women who prefer to rely on their physician to a greater degree, a recent study has found.

José Baselga, MD, PhD, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the investigation of pan-PI3K inhibitors for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Pertuzumab, a new HER2-positive breast cancer drug, is being launched at a 31% premium to the price of trastuzumab.