Managing Skeletal-Related Events in Breast Cancer, Part I

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Skeletal-related events (SREs) are common when administering both hormonal therapy and chemotherapy for patients with breast cancer. In recent years, several new treatment options have been approved that significantly help reduce SREs and improve quality of life.

Joyce A. O’Shaughnessy, MD, discusses results from clinical trials that compared the RANK ligand inhibitor denosumab to zoledronic acid in several tumor types. Overall, in metastatic breast cancer, denosumab showed superiority at reducing the occurrence of SREs. O'Shaughnessy explains that both these treatments are reasonable options but that she prefers denosumab for patients with newly diagnosed bone metastases or those progressing on IV bisphosphonates.

Christy A. Russell, MD, notes that a shortcoming of these trials is a lack of long-term data. Additionally, she feels the dosing schedule can be improved upon further. Moderator, Debu Tripathy, MD, believes that translating these agents into the early stage setting is one of the biggest challenges facing researchers.

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