Breast Cancer

More surgeons are having in-depth conversations with their patients with breast cancer and prophylactic patients about the fact that nerves will have to be cut during their mastectomy, how that will impact sensation and quality of life, and how surgeon collaboration and breast neurotization can help restore sensation.

Experts share how they approach management of patients with disease progression on first-line endocrine therapy, with a focus on ESR1 mutation testing and identifying who might be suitable for treatment with the oral SERD elacestrant.

Timothy Pluard, MD, discusses recent data from an age-based subgroup analysis of RIGHT Choice, which compares the efficacy of combination ribociclib/ET versus chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer.

Neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy led to an improvement in pathological complete response rate compared with chemotherapy plus placebo in patients with high-risk, early-stage, estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

The European Commission has approved sacituzumab govitecan-hziy for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer who have received endocrine-based therapy and at least 2 additional systemic therapies in the advanced setting

Adrienne G. Waks, MD, discusses treatment alternatives in the third line and beyond for patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer.

Addressing socioeconomic health disparities has been a crucial objective of health policy in the United States. The relationship between cancer incidence and mortality and socioeconomic status varies across malignancies.

Paolo Tarantino, MD, discusses the evolution and impact of the continued investigation of antibody-drug conjugates in the treatment of patients with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer.

Seth Wander, MD, PhD, discusses challenges related to the ongoing platinum chemotherapy shortage for patients with breast cancer and other malignancies, as well as ways that oncologists and cancer centers can operate during the shortage to continue to provide appropriate care for patients.

Heather Han, MD, discusses initial safety and efficacy results from the phase 2 NATASHA trial in patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer.

Drs Tripathy and Kaklamani emphasize the most critical unmet needs for patients with HER2+ metastatic breast cancer in the third-line or higher settings and recap what the field previously learned from the HER2CLIMB trial of tucatinib/trastuzumab/capecitabine.

Rachel Layman, MD, presents a clinical case of a patient who is diagnosed with HR+ early-stage breast cancer.

Panelists briefly touch on ongoing trials of second-line tucatinib combination therapy, including HER2CLIMB-02 and HER2CLIMB-05, in patients with or without brain metastases, and offer their clinical perspective which second-line regimens they typically recommend for their patients with HER2+ mBC.

Experts in breast oncology discuss how they select endocrine therapy in BRCA1/BRCA2+ breast cancer.

Erika P. Hamilton, MD, discusses the role of trastuzumab deruxtecan in HER2-positive and HER2-low breast cancer; the evolution of CDK4/6 inhibitors in hormone receptor–positive disease; and how genetic testing can match patients with personalized therapies and support further precision medicine research.

Sophia R. O'Brien, MD, discusses recent advances in the diagnosis and staging of estrogen receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer.

As new data emerge in breast cancer, stepping back from the updates and shedding light on the standard practices as they exist in the clinic are crucial approaches to management of the disease.

Gregory Vidal, MD, PhD, presents ASCO 2023 data from the SONIA trial, which assessed the efficacy of CDK4/6 inhibitors when given as part of a combination with endocrine therapy (ET) in either the first- or second-line setting.

Experts on HR+/HER2- breast cancer review recent real-world data on CDK4/6 inhibitors and share excitement about first-line trials that have not yet read out.

Sanjay Goel, MD, MS, expands on the findings from the phase 1b/2 trial, noting the potential benefit this approach may have for patients with cholangiocarcinoma, and detailed next steps for investigating tinengotinib.

Locoregional recurrence rates among patients with favorable-risk, node-positive hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer was not significantly reduced by the addition of regional nodal irradiation to these patient’s treatment regimens.

Two innovative ASCP education initiatives have received accolades from the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions.

Ian E. Krop, MD, PhD, discusses the use of fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki across age groups in the DESTINY Breast trials in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Experts introduce the antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) and trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) and discuss clinical trial findings and potential use in special patient populations, such as those with brain metastases.

Stephanie Graff, MD, and Rachel Layman, MD, discuss how they would apply the results of the monarchE trial to clinical case scenarios.