Dr Sparano on Advances in Breast Cancer Screening, Treatment, and Drug Development

Joseph A. Sparano, MD, FACP, Ezra M. Greenspan, MD Professor in Clinical Cancer Therapeutics, chief, the Division of Hematology Oncology, deputy director, the Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, discusses developments in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, which he presented during the Greenspan Lecture at the 41st Annual CFS^®. In particular, he highlighted the influence that breast cancer screening has had on decreasing breast cancer mortality rates.

Over the past 40 years, several advances in breast cancer treatment have resulted in an approximately 40% reduction in breast cancer mortality rates, Sparano says. This progress can be primarily attributed to 3 factors, Sparano emphasizes. Firstly, the widespread adoption of breast cancer screening has played a pivotal role in early breast cancer detection. This enhances the curative potential of localized therapies, Sparano explains. Secondly, recognizing that breast cancer is a systemic disease from its inception has led to the widespread use of adjuvant systemic therapies, including endocrine therapy and chemotherapy. These therapeutics have substantially decreased the risk of breast cancer recurrence, according to Sparano. Lastly, efforts to accelerate thedevelopment of effective therapies for advanced-stage disease have now extended to earlier disease stages, Sparano notes.

The widespread adoption of mammographic screening, despite its imperfections, has led to an approximate 20% reduction in breast cancer mortality rates, Sparano says. Ongoing evaluations are exploring alternative screening modalities, such as digital mammography, contrast-enhanced mammography, and magnetic resonance imaging, Sparano explains. Furthermore, a new generation of tests, including multi-cancer detection tests that use simple blood tests to identify early-stage cancer, is under development and testing, Sparano notes. Although the advantages of these novel tests over standard breast cancer screening methods are not yet established, these tests may become widely used in the future, Sparano concludes.