Breast Cancer

A quarter of women with HER2-positive breast cancer treated with a combination of lapatinib plus trastuzumab prior to surgery had significant tumor shrinkage within 11 days.

In light of the recent announcement by Vice President Joe Biden to infuse the US cancer research program with $1 billion, a so-called “Moon Shot” program, we are speaking today with Giulio Draetta, a clinician and cancer researcher at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston, who leads that center’s Moon Shots program.

The FDA has expanded the indication for palbociclib (Ibrance), to be used in combination with fulvestrant in women with HR-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.

A study including nearly 30,000 women found that newly diagnosed early-stage breast cancer patients often undergo advanced imaging tests, in spite of recommendations against this practice.

ASCO updated guidelines, recommending that higher-risk premenopausal ER-positive breast cancer patients receive ovarian suppression with adjuvant endocrine therapy.

This review will summarize the current standard of care; key issues that arise when treating patients with HER2-positive disease; and developments in novel therapeutics, including small-molecule inhibitors, nanoparticles, immunotherapy, and agents targeting resistance pathways.

While we continue to be thankful for incremental gains in the treatment of our patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, much work remains in order to optimize and individualize care.

Young breast cancer patients increasingly undergo genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. Testing also appears to influence surgical treatment decisions.

Some adult-onset cancer survivors have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease later in life compared to noncancer controls.

ASCO has published a guideline on biomarker use to guide decisions for adjuvant systemic treatment for women with early-stage, invasive breast cancer.

Despite clinical trial evidence and recommendations that certain older breast cancer patients can forego radiation therapy after lumpectomy, most older patients continue to receive radiation therapy, according to a new study.

In this interview we discuss the effect of breast cancer treatments on fertility and the role oncologists can play in facilitating fertility care for their patients.

A novel prediction model can help predict long-term overall survival among breast cancer patients with distant metastases, according to a new study. The model could be used as a decision-making tool for physicians and patients.

More than 15% of men and women over the age of 65 may have received breast or prostate cancer screening not recommended by current guidelines.

Breast cancer survivors with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive disease had a lower annual risk of recurrence within the first 5 years after diagnosis, though these patients then had higher rates than ER-negative patients after 5 years.

Mice fed sugar at levels comparable to those in a typical Western diet had greater tumor growth and metastasis compared to mice fed a starch-based, no-sugar diet.

A randomized trial showed that personalized care plans and one-on-one counseling can improve adherence to survivorship plans among low-income breast cancer survivors.

A substudy of the SOFT trial found that a number of patients assigned to adjuvant treatment with the aromatase inhibitor exemestane plus triptorelin do not achieve complete reductions in their estrogen levels.

Younger women who received triptorelin to suppress ovarian function prior to chemotherapy had a greater chance of preserving fertility.

Patients diagnosed with HER2-amplified breast cancer at a younger age have a low risk of being a high-risk gene carrier, according to a new study examining susceptibility genes.

A 45-year-old woman is found to have a breast nodule. What is your diagnosis?

We are speaking with Maximilian Diehn, MD, PhD, on developing genomics-based biomarkers to identify the presence of cancer cells for prognosis and predicting response to cancer therapies.

Two studies of the new HER2 selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor ONT-380 showed the drug has promising activity in HER2-positive breast cancer and especially in patients with central nervous system metastases.

T-DM1 improved survival in women with HER2-positive breast cancer, even after treatment with two or more other HER2-targeted therapies including trastuzumab and lapatinib.

Women with early-stage breast cancer treated with breast-conserving therapy had significantly improved 10-year overall survival compared with women who underwent mastectomy without radiation therapy.

A preclinical study looking at ER-positive breast cancer indicated that tamoxifen response was improved by reducing levels of the enzyme APOBEC3B and worsened by increasing levels of the enzyme.

Women with advanced endocrine-resistant breast cancer who had PIK3CA mutations in their circulating tumor DNA had an almost 4-month progression-free survival improvement when adding the PIK3CA inhibitor buparlisib to fulvestrant.

The addition of carboplatin to a neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen resulted in improvements in disease-free survival for women with triple-negative breast cancer.

MRI can detect a larger tumor burden than detected by mammography alone, potentially changing treatment, according to a recently published study.

Among local treatment options for early breast cancer patients, mastectomy plus reconstruction has the highest rate of complications and is highest in cost.