Breast Cancer

While breast-conserving surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy has become more accepted over time, methods of management of the axillary lymph nodes have remained matters of controversy.

This slide show highlights some of the presentations that took place at the 2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco, September 25-27, 2015.

Significantly more women are now aware of reconstructive surgery options after mastectomies for breast cancer, following coverage of Angelina Jolie’s mastectomies in 2013.

Some patients with early-stage HR-positive breast cancer can be treated with hormone therapy alone, avoiding chemo without increasing their recurrence risk.

A large database study found that the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients does not raise the risk of postoperative surgical complications.

A new study found that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) screening improved the detection of small, high-grade breast cancers in women with average risk.

A new model using only age at biopsy and number of atypia foci could improve absolute breast cancer risk estimates in women with atypical hyperplasia.

New research has shown that there are genetic factors that drive which breast cancers will relapse and metastasize and which will not, and the identification of these factors may help clinicians identify patients at higher risk for recurrence.

In this interview we discuss the causes of treatment-related infertility as well as strategies to preserve fertility in patients treated for their breast cancer.

Ahead of the 2015 ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium, Saima Noor Hassan, MD, PhD, discusses her upcoming presentation on PARP inhibitors in breast cancer.

According to the results of a genomic analysis, several genetic characteristics linked with aggressive cancer are more common in the breast tumors of African American women compared to their white counterparts.

Five-year recurrence rates for women with ductal carcinoma in situ have been cut in half recently due to advances in mammography and more detailed pathology assessments.

Adjuvant radiation therapy after lumpectomy improves survival for elderly women with early-stage, triple-negative breast cancer, according to a study to be presented at the 2015 ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium.

Our study shows a declining rate of recurrence over the decades, suggesting that for a woman treated today, the expected recurrence rate should be lower than that seen in the randomized trials.

The attainment of “no evidence of disease” after treatment for metastatic breast cancer is significantly associated with prolonged survival, according to a new study.

Multiple randomized trials and their meta-analysis have demonstrated an overall survival benefit from postmastectomy radiotherapy in women with node-positive breast cancer. However, none of the patients treated in these trials received neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which is now an increasingly common approach.

An asymptomatic 45-year-old woman presented for a screening mammogram and was noted to have a soft-tissue opacity with calcifications in the left breast. Ultrasound revealed a highly suspicious mass.

A study of women in Spain suggests that a Mediterranean diet accompanied by supplemental extra virgin olive oil is associated with a lower risk of breast cancer.

Current data challenge the statement that recommendations for postmastectomy radiotherapy should be based on the highest clinical or pathologic stage. Instead, data suggest that in a majority of patients, the pathologic stage after neoadjuvant chemotherapy carries more prognostic value.

Adding pertuzumab to first-line therapy for HER2-positive breast cancer has been shown to yield a survival benefit, but a new analysis says adding the drug is not cost effective.

Tracking tumor DNA in the blood of early breast cancer patients following surgery predicted relapse nearly 8 months earlier than conventional imaging.

A large study found that while the risk of dying from breast cancer after a DCIS diagnosis is quite low, it is on par with that of women diagnosed with small, invasive breast tumors, and that aggressive DCIS treatment does not produce better results.

The presence of the truncated form of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (p95HER2) in circulating tumor cells is associated with poor survival in breast cancer patients.

Both chemotherapy and anti-HER2 therapy can improve survival in HER2-positive breast cancer patients with brain metastases who undergo whole-brain radiotherapy.

Testing women for non-BRCA gene mutations that can confer breast or ovarian cancer risk has clinical management consequences for both the women and their family members.

Hypofractionated radiation therapy results in less toxicity and provides a better quality of life compared with conventional whole-breast irradiation, according to two recent studies.

A pair of studies suggest that aromatase inhibitors and bisphosphonates can each improve survival for postmenopausal women with early breast cancer.

Two trials reported marginal or no improvement in survival with nodal irradiation in early breast cancer patients, though reductions were seen in recurrence.

With the presentation and publication of the TEXT and SOFT trials in 2014, along with the aTTom and ATLAS trials in the last few years, deciding among the standard adjuvant endocrine therapy options for premenopausal women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer has become increasingly complicated.

For breast cancer specialists, much of the excitement at ASCO revolved around the emerging field of checkpoint inhibition in breast cancer and other tumors; however, there were four non-checkpoint presentations in breast cancer that also proved provocative.