Patient, Provider and Caregiver Connection™: Addressing Patient Concerns During the Treatment and Management of HR+/HER2- Breast Cancer
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Oncology Consultations®: Next Generation SERDs—Key Data and Practical Takeaways for the Community Physician
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Multidisciplinary Management of TNBC: Immunotherapy, PARP, TROP2, Oh My!
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Medical Crossfire®: Leveraging Multidisciplinary Teams in Early–Stage Breast Cancer When the Goal is Cure
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23rd Annual International Congress on the Future of Breast Cancer® East
July 19-20, 2024
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Community Practice Connections™: 14th Annual International Symposium on Ovarian Cancer and Other Gynecologic Malignancies
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Community Practice Connections™: The Advent of TROP2-Targeted Treatment Approaches in HR+/HER2- Breast Cancer
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Community Practice Connections™: Controversies and Conversations About HER2- Expressing Breast Cancer…Advances in Management of HER2-Low to -Positive Disease
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Show Me the Data™: Do We Have Sea Change for Novel Approaches in HR+/HER2- Breast Cancer? CDK, PI3K/AKT, ADC, and Next-Gen SERD Strategies Assessed
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Cancer Summaries and Commentaries™: Clinical Updates from Chicago in Breast Cancer
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42nd Annual CFS®: Innovative Cancer Therapy for Tomorrow®
November 13-15, 2024
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Community Practice Connections™: 5th Annual Precision Medicine Symposium – An Illustrated Tumor Board
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Community Oncology Connections™: Overcoming Barriers to Testing, Trial Access, and Equitable Care in Cancer
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42nd Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference®
March 6 - 9, 2025
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The Evolving Tool Box in Advanced HR+/HER2– Breast Cancer: What You Need to Know About Next-Generation SERDs, PI3K/AKT, ADCs, CDK4/6 and Beyond…
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Coffee Talk™: Navigating the Impact of HER2/3, TROP2, and PARP from Early Stage to Advanced Breast Cancer Care
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Pregnancy After Breast Cancer: From Psychosocial Issues Through Conception
May 1st 1998Since physicians have stressed complete rehabilitation after breast cancer treatment, including breast reconstruction and psychosocial aspects, it follows that young women who have undergone such treatment may wish to resume their life roles, which often include motherhood. Consequently, the issue of pregnancy after breast cancer treatment has assumed paramount importance. This pertinent, accurate review of such a complex issue can be so brief because there are so few data on the subject. Given the diversity of the issues presented in the review, it is helpful to consider them individually.
Pregnancy After Breast Cancer: From Psychosocial Issues Through Conception
May 1st 1998Breast cancer, the most common malignancy in women, frequently develops during the premenopausal years. The great majority of these breast cancers can be successfully treated, and the decision to have children remains a real and important consideration. The relationship between breast cancer and a subsequent pregnancy is complex, and decisions regarding one may ultimately affect the course or outcome of the other.
Pregnancy After Breast Cancer: From Psychosocial Issues Through Conception
May 1st 1998Women face numerous issues if they either contemplate childbearing or become pregnant after the diagnosis of breast cancer. Based on a search of the English medical literature from 1966 to 1997, we make the following
New NCCN Outcomes Data Base Sparks Great Interest
April 10th 1998FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla--The much-anticipated, prospective, comprehensive outcomes data base of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a consortium of 16 US cancer centers, is now up and running, and includes data on almost 400 patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer collected at five NCCN sites over 3 months.
Tamoxifen: Dramatic Decrease in Breast Cancer
April 1st 1998WASHINGTON--Researchers terminated the treatment portion of the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (BCPT) in late March, 14 months earlier than expected, after the study’s independent monitoring committee determined that patients receiving tamoxifen (Nolvadex) had a 45% reduction in breast cancer incidence, compared to the placebo arm.
Carlson Updates NCCN Guideline on Breast Cancer
April 1st 1998FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla--The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) continues to fine tune its breast cancer guideline, introduced 2 years ago. Robert Carlson, MD, of Stanford University, and chair of the Breast Cancer Guideline Committee, reviewed the proposed revisions at the NCCN’s third conference. The Network is a coalition of 16 US cancer centers.
Physicians Can Help Patients Resolve Their Fears of Intimacy After Breast Cancer Treatment
April 1st 1998NEW YORK--After treatment, many breast cancer patients have fears and misconceptions that hamper their sexual activity, and their partners may have them, too, Marisa Weiss, MD, said at a Cancer Care teleconference. Women may assume their partner finds them unattractive, while their partner may be afraid of causing injury.
NCCN Recommends Annual Mammography For All Women Over 40
April 1st 1998FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla--The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a consortium of 16 leading US cancer centers, has ventured into the contentious area of breast cancer screening, and in its first draft, the breast cancer screening committee has recommended annual mammography screening for all women age 40 and over.
Adding Retinoid to Adjuvant Chemotherapy May Improve Outcome in Early Breast Cancer Patients
April 1st 1998VILLEJUIF, France--The addition of a retinoid to adjuvant chemotherapy provided a hint of a survival advantage over chemotherapy alone for breast cancer patients, but the difference did not achieve statistical significance, according to 13-year follow-up data from a randomized clinical trial.
Preclinical Studies Using the Intratumoral Aromatase Model for Postmenopausal Breast Cancer
March 2nd 1998To determine the most effective strategies for the treatment of postmenopausal hormone dependent breast cancer, we recently developed a model system in nude mice. In this model, estrogen receptor-positive human breast cancer cells (MCF-7) stably transfected with the aromatase gene are inoculated into ovariectomized, immunosuppressed (nude) mice.
Phase II and III Clinical Trials of Toremifene for Metastatic Breast Cancer
March 2nd 1998Toremifene (Fareston) received FDA approval in 1997 for the first-line treatment of postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive or -unknown metastatic breast cancer. Phase II and III trials have demonstrated that first-line therapy with toremifene, 60 mg/d, is as effective and as well tolerated as tamoxifen (Nolvadex), 20 or 40 mg/d, in such patients.
Status of Antiestrogen Breast Cancer Prevention Trials
March 2nd 1998Various ongoing double-blind clinical trials are evaluating the use of tamoxifen (Nolvadex) as chemoprevention for breast cancer. A total of over 24,000 healthy women have been randomized to these trials, and it should be possible, by the year 2000, to detect any preventive effect of tamoxifen in healthy women. Furthermore, with the large numbers of women involved, it should be possible to evaluate prevention in subgroups of participants according to risk of the disease, particularly those women carrying high-risk genes, such as BRCA1 and BRCA2.
Antiestrogen Therapy: Uncertainties and Risk Assessment
March 2nd 1998Tamoxifen is by far the most clinically tested antiestrogenic drug currently used as adjuvant therapy for breast cancer and it continues to provide considerable benefit in this setting. The balance from clinical trials indicates a strong association between the use of tamoxifen and an increase in uterine tumors (three to sixfold). In rats, tamoxifen is a mutagenic, genotoxic hepatocarcinogen.
Adjuvant Trials of Toremifene vs Tamoxifen: The European Experience
March 2nd 1998When results from the phase II trials of toremifene (Fareston) and tamoxifen (Nolvadex) in metastatic breast cancer were published, the Finnish Breast Cancer Group began to plan the first trial of toremifene in an adjuvant setting. This multicenter, randomized trial is comparing toremifene (40 mg/d) to tamoxifen (20 mg/d) in postmenopausal lymph node-positive breast cancer patients.
Pivotal Trials of Letrozole: A New Aromatase Inhibitor
March 2nd 1998Letrozole (Femara) is a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor that is approximately 10,000 times as potent as aminoglutethimide in vivo. Two pivotal multinational phase III trials have compared letrozole (0.5 and 2.5 mg/d) against megestrol acetate and aminoglutethimide, respectively, in patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.
Emerging Role of Aromatase Inhibitors in the Treatment of Breast Cancer
March 2nd 1998The new generation of potent steroidal and nonsteroidal inhibitors of the enzyme aromatase act by decreasing estrogen production throughout the body in postmenopausal women. The most potent of these agents may also inhibit estrogen synthesis within metastatic breast cancer tissue.
Radiologic Staging Tests Unwarranted In Small Breast Cancer
March 1st 1998NEWPORT BEACH, Calif--Despite recommendations to the contrary, cancer specialists continue to order radiologic tests that rarely provide useful staging information about patients with early-stage breast cancer, results of a California study show.
Investigators Involved in Toremifene Studies Call It a Potentially Safer Antiestrogen
March 1st 1998Toremifene (Fareston), the first new antiestrogen agent for treating advanced breast cancer available in the United States in more than 19 years, is as effective as tamoxifen (Nolvadex) in clinical trials and potentially safer, Richard Gams, md, professor of internal medicine and director of hematology/oncology, Ohio State University, said at a teleconference sponsored by Schering-Plough to introduce the recently approved agent.
Sentinel Node Detection and Evaluation Can Eliminate Need for Total Axillary Dissection
March 1st 1998TAMPA, Fla--Sentinel lymph node evaluation can eliminate the need for total axillary dissection in 75% of breast cancer patients, Alan Shons, MD, said at the 20th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Letrozole Effective, Well Tolerated in Postmenopausal Women With Advanced Breast Cancer
March 1st 1998The aromatase inhibitor letrozole (Femara), at a dosage of 2.5 mg once daily, is an effective therapy for advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women whose disease progresses following antiestrogen therapy, according to data published in the February 1998 Journal of Clinical Oncology. The study was conducted by the Letrozole International Trial Group and was sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.
Breast Conservation Safe in Women With Family History
March 1st 1998ORLANDO--Breast-conserving therapy appears to be a viable treatment option for breast cancer patients with a family history of breast cancer, Elizabeth Chabner, MD, said at the annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology (ASTRO).
Expert Calls for New Concept of Race in Cancer Studies
March 1st 1998Cancer researchers and clinicians need to adopt a new attitude toward race classifications as interracial parentage in the United States continues to increase. “I want to uncouple race and genetics,” stated Edison Liu, MD, at the 1997 Biennial Symposium on Minorities, the Medically Underserved, and Cancer held in Washington, DC.
No Adverse Effects With RT Delay After Surgery
March 1st 1998VICTORIA, BC, Canada--Delaying radiation therapy for up to 5 months after surgery for breast cancer had no adverse effect on local recurrence or survival, a finding that may help lay to rest any controversy about delayed irradiation, Peter Froud, MD, reported at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Political Action Needed to Counter Growing Lung Cancer Threat to Women
March 1st 1998Women must make lung cancer as hot and as female a public issue as they have made breast cancer, urged a cancer expert speaking at the 1997 Biennial Symposium on Minorities, the Medically Underserved, and Cancer in Washington, DC. Five years from now, twice as many women will die of lung cancer than of breast cancer, warned Paul Bunn, Jr., md, Grohne/Stapp Chair in Cancer Research and director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center.
Tissue “Expanders” Improve Results of Breast Reconstruction
March 1st 1998Women who undergo breast reconstruction following mastectomy for breast cancer express strong satisfaction with a novel surgical approach, reported a surgeon at Georgetown University Medical Center in the January 1998 issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Stress of Breast Cancer Can Weaken Immune System
March 1st 1998In the largest study of its kind to date, Ohio State University researchers have shown that the stress women experience after breast cancer diagnosis and surgery can weaken their immune response, based on at least three different biochemical indicators.
Skin Sealant Delays Onset of Radiation-Induced Dermatitis
March 1st 1998LONG BEACH, Calif--Use of a polymer adhesive skin sealant (PASS) can help breast cancer patients complete prescribed radiation therapy without interruptions due to radiation-induced dermatitis, Robert H. Goebel, MD, JD, reported at a poster session of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
New Program Urges Exercise To Reduce Breast Cancer Risk
March 1st 1998WASHINGTON--A Virginia physician wants to send women back to school to help them make lifestyle changes aimed at reducing breast cancer risk--but not to the classroom. Rather, she hopes to increase participation in lifestyle programs by "recapturing recess"--appealing to the "joy of unbridled movement" remembered from childhood hours on the playground.