Breast Cancer

In July 2003, an asymptomatic 40-year-old man presented to his primary care physician for routine care and was found to have a palpable right axillary lymph node.

Brain metastases from primary breast cancer tumors often acquire clinically actionable genetic alterations, according to a small study. About one fifth of ERBB2/HER2-negative cases switched to HER2-positivity in the brain metastases.

A study recently published is suggesting that a key drug target, CDK4/6, regulates a cancer metastasis protein, and may play a role in combating metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer. In addition, this new finding may point to a new way of preventing metastasis in other cancers.

The use of mammography, but not colonoscopy, has increased in the post–Affordable Care Act years, which eliminated out-of-pocket expenditures for these recommended services, according to the results of a new study.

Breast cancer screening was not associated with any reduction in the incidence of advanced cancer, and overdiagnosis of invasive tumors and ductal carcinoma in situ is a common problem, according to a new study conducted in Denmark.

Among cancer patients with bone metastases, administration of zoledronic acid every 12 weeks did not increase the risk of skeletal events over 2 years compared with the standard dosing of every 4 weeks.

An anti-HER2 dendritic vaccination may be a safe and immunogenic treatment to induce tumor-specific T-cell responses in HER2-positive, early-stage breast cancer patients.

The use of acellular dermal matrices in implant-based breast reconstruction after mastectomy was associated with an increased rate of adverse events compared with a two-stage procedure.

The FDA has approved a new device that allows for the expansion of soft tissue in two-stage breast reconstruction surgery conducted after mastectomy.

A higher quantity of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) was associated with better overall survival in patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer treated with either pertuzumab or placebo, along with trastuzumab and docetaxel.

A study found that about 20% of women with breast cancer did not complete their prescribed endocrine therapy.

Larger social networks involving family, friends, community ties, and other connections are associated with better breast cancer–specific and overall survival.

We review available strategies for screening and risk reduction through chemoprevention or risk-reducing surgery, as well as challenges for management of breast cancer in patients with prior exposure to radiation for Hodgkin lymphoma.

Curative therapy, including chest RT for Hodgkin lymphoma, is associated with a definitively increased risk of breast cancer, most often manifesting approximately 20 years after treatment. These breast cancers tend to be more aggressive, with greater frequency of hormone receptor negativity and potential HER2 positivity.

Over the long term, local recurrence is more likely in young women with invasive breast cancer who undergo breast conserving surgery compared with those who undergo mastectomy, though survival is no different.

A biosimilar yielded equivalent response rates to trastuzumab at 24 weeks in a study of women with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

In this interview we discuss breast cancer prevention and risk assessments, including the questions these assessments aim to answer, what classifies someone as average or high risk, and appropriate next steps for patients who fall in these categories.

In patients with HER2-positive breast cancer undergoing trastuzumab therapy, the use of an ACE inhibitor or beta-blocker could protect against cardiac toxicity.

Expansion of precision medicine approaches will play a key role in optimizing care and improving outcomes for breast cancer patients in 2017. Here we highlight some of the studies and FDA approvals we are most anxious to see in the coming year.

Researchers have developed a new computational method to better understand what goes on inside a breast cancer tumor.

Patients with ER-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer had significant delays in progression when palbociclib was added to letrozole treatment, according to the double-blind PALOMA-2 study.

This slide show highlights some of the top breast cancer news of 2016, including a study looking at optimal margins in DCIS, a trial on biosimilars, a new FDA approval, and more.

Polymorphisms in the FCGR3A gene are correlated with degree of benefit from trastuzumab in women with ERBB2/HER2-positive breast cancer, according to a new analysis.

Serum levels of a vitamin D biomarker measured at the time of breast cancer diagnosis were independently associated with breast cancer prognosis, especially among premenopausal women.

The antibody-drug conjugate trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) showed non-inferior-but not superior-efficacy to trastuzumab plus a taxane in women with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer.

Tailored dose-dense chemotherapy in high-risk early breast cancer patients did not show a significant improvement in recurrence-free survival compared with standard adjuvant chemotherapy.

Stratifying breast cancer patients by chemotherapy and genetic susceptibility, researchers were able to identify patients at high risk of venous thromboembolism.

A new paper highlights the global inequities in access to prevention, early detection and treatment for breast cancer and cervical cancer.

A cognitive rehabilitation program known as Insight resulted in improvements in cognitive symptoms compared to standard care in adult cancer survivors.

Two new studies are suggesting that PIM1 inhibitors, which are already in clinical trials for leukemia and multiple myeloma (MM), may help combat triple-negative breast cancer.