Breast Cancer

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced results from a large, randomized, pivotal phase III study of its investigational small-molecule dual kinase inhibitor lapatinib ditosylate (Tykerb). In this study, the combination of lapatinib and capecitabine (Xeloda) vs capecitabine alone nearly doubled time to progression (36.9 weeks in the combination arm vs 19.7 weeks with capecitabine alone, P = .00032) in women with refractory advanced or metastatic HER2 (ErbB2)-positive breast cancer whose disease had progressed following treatment with trastuzumab (Herceptin) and other cancer therapies.

Young, black breast cancer patients are much more likely than young white patients to have tumors that lack receptors for estrogen, progesterone, and HER2, according to a new, population-based study in about 500 women. This means that many breast cancer patients, including almost half of young black patients, "have tumors for which there is no targeted therapy," said lead author Mary Jo Lund, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology, hematology, and oncology, Rollins School of Public Health and Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta.

Lapatinib (Tykerb), an oral small-molecule reversible dual inhibitor of HER1 (EGFR) and HER2 tyrosine kinases, is emerging as a promising option for HER2-positive breast cancer patients, investigators of phase II and III trials reported at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Clinical evidence suggests that lapatinib, unlike trastuzumab (Herceptin), can cross the blood-brain barrier to treat brain metastases, which develop in about one-third of HER2-positive breast cancer patients.

Vitamin D appears to lower the risk of breast cancer, but far greater amounts are needed than most women normally take in, according to two studies presented at the 97th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Treatment of metastatic breast cancer is "a book with many chapters, ie, with many opportunities for meaningful intervention, as opposed to pancreatic cancer, for example," Andrew Seidman, MD, said in his discussion of metastatic breast cancer at the Second Annual Advances in Oncology meeting, sponsored by the journal ONCOLOGY.

Abandoning the tamoxifen market to its generic competitors, AstraZeneca will cease commercial manufacturing of Nolvadex by the end of June. "Once commercial supplies are exhausted, your patients will no longer be able to obtain brand name Nolvadex tablets," Kenneth A. Kern, MD, the company's director of clinical research, wrote health care professionals in a letter released by the US Food and Drug Administration.

According to a new study, women who gain weight in adulthood face a higher lifetime risk of all types of breast cancer even if they do not take hormone replacement therapy after menopause. To be published in the July 1, 2006, issue of CANCER, the study reveals that the greater the weight gain as an adult, the greater the risk for all histologic types, tumor stages, and grades of breast cancer, particularly advanced malignancies.

Nancy E. Davidson, MD, a medical oncologist who has specialized in breast cancer for more than 20 years, has been elected to become president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for a 1-year term beginning in June 2007. She took office as president-elect this month, during ASCO's 42nd annual meeting in Atlanta.

Data published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that in the estrogen-alone substudy of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), conjugated estrogens at a dose of 0.625 mg did not increase breast cancer incidence in postmenopausal women.

The Journal of Clinical Oncology has published results of a large-scale trial conducted with the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) confirming that the Oncotype DX 21-gene panel, which quantifies the risk of breast cancer recurrence, also predicts the likelihood of response to chemotherapy in a large portion of women with early-stage breast cancer. This study successfully challenges the common assumption that

The 20th anniversary feature article on "Twenty Years of Systemic Therapy for Breast Cancer" and its reviews in the January 2006 issue of ONCOLOGY are incomplete from a global perspective. I must gently protest the suggestion that the "end of breast cancer as a serious cause of human mortality is now in sight."

During the past 18 months, researchers have developed substantial evidence supporting the notion that stem cells play a critical role in the development of at least some cancers, their progression, and the prognosis of patients, including breast, brain, lung, and prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, and melanoma.

A survey of 121 breast cancer patients attending a breast cancer clinic found that 59% had received their "bad news" diagnosis over the telephone (mainly in their local area). Brianna J. Crawford, research coordinator at the Breast Diagnostic and Cancer Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, reported the study results in a poster session at the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS) Third Annual Conference (P14-3).

Postmenopausal breast cancer patients given the intravenous bisphosphonate zoledronic acid (Zometa) twice a year at the start of adjuvant therapy with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole (Femara) had significantly increased bone mineral density (BMD) at 12 months, compared with a delayed-therapy group. Nigel Bundred, MD, of University Hospital, South Manchester, UK, presented the findings at the 5th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBBC) (abstract 12).

Raloxifene (Evista, Eli Lilly) has proven as effective as tamoxifen in reducing the risk of invasive breast cancer in postmenopausal women who are at increased risk of the disease. Initial findings from the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR) showed that both drugs reduced breast cancer risk by about 50% but that patients in the raloxifene arm had 36% fewer uterine cancers and 29% fewer blood clots than those on tamoxifen.

STAR Trial Shows Raloxifene to Be as Effective as Tamoxifen in Preventing Invasive Breast Cancer

Twenty years ago, antiestrogen therapy with tamoxifen played only a secondary role in breast cancer care. All hopes to cure metastatic breast cancer were still pinned on either the discovery of new cytotoxic drugs or a dose-dense combination of available cytotoxic drugs with bone marrow transplantation. A similar strategy with combination chemotherapy was employed as an adjuvant for primary breast cancer. Simply stated, the goal was to kill the cancer with nonspecific cytotoxic drugs while keeping the patient alive with supportive care. However, medical research does not travel in straight lines, and an alternative approach emerged to solve the problem of controlling tumor growth with minimal side effects: targeted therapy. The approach of using long-term antihormone therapy to control early-stage breast cancer growth would revolutionize cancer care by targeting the tumor estrogen receptor (ER). The success of the strategy would contribute to a decrease in the national mortality figures for breast cancer. More importantly, translational research that targeted the tumor ER with a range of new antiestrogenic drugs would presage the current fashion of blocking survival pathways for the tumor by developing novel targeted treatments. But a surprise was in store when the pharmacology of "antiestrogens" was studied in detail: The nonsteroidal "antiestrogens" are selective ER modulators—ie, they are antiestrogens in the breast, estrogens in the bone—and they lower circulating cholesterol levels. This knowledge would establish a practical approach to breast cancer chemoprevention for women at high risk (tamoxifen) and low risk (raloxifene).

The Breast Cancer International Research Group (BCIRG) and the Sanofi-Aventis group announced the results from the first interim efficacy and updated safety analyses from the BCIRG 006 phase III breast cancer study, which show that trastuzumab (Herceptin) combined with docetaxel (Taxotere)-based regimens significantly improved disease-free survival for women with early HER2-positive breast cancer.

Surveillance screening for colon and breast cancer appears to diminish 5 years after the original diagnosis.

Two analyses from the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group (NCIC CTG) MA.17 letrozole (Femara) trial strongly support the ability of this aromatase inhibitor to significantly reduce disease recurrence among postmenopausal women previously treated with tamoxifen.

Ten-year results from the TAM-01 trial indicate that maximal benefits of tamoxifen are achieved within 5 to 6 years of treatment.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has begun the largest, most comprehensive effort to identify genetic risk factors for two major cancers, a 3-year initiative aimed at deciphering which genetic alterations put people at increased risk of developing breast and prostate cancer.

Biopsy remains the gold standard for diagnosing breast cancer in women whose mammograms or physical exams yield abnormal findings, according to a new federal report

Two studies presented at the 28th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium suggest researchers are getting closer to developing patient-specific prognostic assays for breast cancer recurrence.

Researchers have found that mammography coupled with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is extremely sensitive in the detection of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).