Breast Cancer

A biomarker known as RAD51 was found to be correlated with resistance to PARP inhibitor treatment in a study of breast cancer that harbors BRCA mutations.

Reversible ovarian function suppression using LHRH agonists is the preferred first treatment for most premenopausal breast cancer patients.

Though LHRH agonists may be the preferred method of ovarian function suppression, ovarian ablation is a viable option for select premenopausal breast cancer patients.

Laboratory studies suggest that mechanisms of resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy differ between the specific subtypes of HER2-positive breast cancer.

Two new studies have found that some HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer patients can avoid sentinel lymph node biopsy after neoadjuvant systemic therapy.

The rate of severe acute toxicity was relatively low in a study of radiosensitization with veliparib for patients with inflammatory or locally recurrent breast cancer.

Triple-negative breast cancer treatments being investigated include checkpoint inhibitors, agents that target the androgen receptor pathways, and antibody-drug conjugates.

ASTRO has released new guidelines recommending hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation for women with breast cancer.

During the 2018 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, cardiologist Dr. Jean-Bernard Durand discussed protecting patients who are being treated with anthracyclines and HER2-targeted therapies from serious cardiac adverse events.

At the 2018 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, Dr. Patrick Borgen presented information related to gene expression profiling as a tool for managing DCIS.

During the 2018 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, Dr. Sara Hurvitz discussed current management options for patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer.

Lisinopril and carvedilol reduced cardiotoxicity in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer treated with trastuzumab and anthracyclines.

During the 2018 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, Dr. Elizabeth A. Mittendorf discussed immunotherapy concepts and strategies related to breast cancer.

Some patients with HER2-positive breast cancer may develop an immunosuppressive phenotype based on an increase in regulatory T cells following treatment.

Vinflunine did not improve overall survival compared with physician’s choice of alkylating agent in patients with heavily pretreated metastatic breast cancer.

Patients with ER-negative, but not ER-positive, isolated locoregional recurrence after unilateral breast cancer derive significant benefit from chemotherapy.

The addition of metronomic chemotherapy to dual HER2 blockade improved outcomes in older and frail patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

In this review, we will discuss the role of geriatric assessment, alternative treatment modalities for older women with triple-negative breast cancer, and other special considerations for this patient population.

Several markers of bone formation and resorption were found to be predictive of bone-specific recurrence in patients with early breast cancer.

Women undergoing mastectomy did not have an accurate idea of their future well-being, with misprediction associated with greater regret but not satisfaction with decisions.

A trastuzumab biosimilar known as SB3 showed equivalent efficacy and safety to trastuzumab itself in a phase III trial of women with early HER2-positive breast cancer in the neoadjuvant setting.

The PAM50 risk of recurrence score can improve the prediction of recurrence at 10 years in postmenopausal patients with HR-positive early breast cancer.

Adding palbociclib to letrozole offers similar health-related quality of life and better pain scores in postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor–positive/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer, compared to letrozole alone, according to an analysis of the PALOMA-2 trial.

No difference was found in pathologic complete response rates between neoadjuvant paclitaxel and nab-paclitaxel in women with ERBB2/HER2-negative breast cancer.

Using gene expression profile tests like Oncotype DX to inform treatment decision-making for breast cancer is likely to be less cost-effective in community oncology practice than previous estimates had suggested.