Breast Cancer

A 57-year-old patient presents for evaluation of right nipple discomfort. The patient has family history of a mother and sister with premenopausal breast cancer.

In 2004, Dr. Leisha Emens and I reviewed the use of trastuzumab (Herceptin), the monoclonal antibody directed against the HER2 protein, in the treatment of breast cancer.

A 33-patient Phase 1/2 study in Europe published in the European Journal of Cancer has shown that a new chemotherapy combo of a novel taxoid, cabazitaxel, and capectiabine shows promise in previously treated metastatic breast cancer patients.

In a prospective study published online first on March 28, 2011 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers have shown, for the first time, that annual MRI screenings can reduce breast cancer-related mortality in women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation.

Many historical evolutions of concepts have emerged regarding lobular neoplasia (LN) since 1865, when Cornil first described this entity as “intraepithelial breast carcinoma in lobules.

Breast cancers of lobular histology are not frequently encountered, but are nevertheless the second most common histologic subtype of breast cancer after ductal adenocarcinoma.

A 40-year-old premenopausal woman with a new diagnosis of invasive lobular carcinoma occurring in a background of lobular carcinoma in situ presents to a multidisciplinary second opinion clinic.

The study represents one of the largest cancer genomics investigations reported, with more than 10 trillion chemical bases of DNA sequenced. While its results underscore the complexity of breast cancer biology, the mutations uncovered may provide further clues to inform personalized therapy of this common breast cancer subtype.

“Hallmarks of Cancer”, published in the journal Cell in 2000 provided a conceptual framework for the evolution of cancer as well as an all-encompassing review of the cancer field to date. The article is updated in the March 4th, 2011 issue of Cell.

Women over 50 years old with early breast cancer confined to one breast who took 20 mg of tamoxifen daily for 5 years were less likely to relapse than those who took the drug for 2 years.

Researchers at the University of Milan sought to assess the clinical relevance of biopsying primary breast cancers and secondary metastatic liver lesions to evaluate the occurrence of important markers.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) updated its recommendation last month on the role of bone-modifying agents in the prevention of skeletal-related events (SREs) for metastatic breast cancer patients with bone metastases.

Breast cancer has long been described as a very heterogeneous disease, and clinicians have struggled with identifying the appropriate treatment program for an individual patient on the basis of multiple variables, including histology, nuclear grade, tumor size, nodal status, hormone receptor status, and a variety of prognostic factors.

Drs. Dawood and Cristofanilli provide a concise review of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) and succinctly cover its most salient features, including its clinicopathologic characteristics, its key molecular features, and an overview of treatment outcomes.

A new study in the journal Cancer, published by the American Cancer Society concludes that tamoxifen can save lives and decrease medical costs when taken by menopausal women under 55 years of age as a preventive measure against breast cancer.

As a clinician and researcher in the prostate cancer field, I have been hearing that prostate cancer is “20 years behind” breast cancer now for the last 25 years!

P13K inhibitors, now in the earliest stages of clinical testing, receive hopeful attention as an alternative for patients with aromatase inhibitor resistance. A new study proposes how they should be used, and for whom.

A first-in-class chemotherapy agent, eribulin, has shown that it significantly improved overall survival (OS) compared with treatment of physician’s choice (TPC) in women with metastatic breast cancer who have received at least two prior treatments.

Over the past decade, inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), a rare and aggressive subtype of locally advanced breast cancer (LABC), has received much attention at the level of public awareness as well as at the level of research.

The growing popularity of personalized cancer care has increased interest in tools that can guide physicians to the best-tailored therapies for their patients.

Dr. Muss and his colleagues investigated the use of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with lymph node-positive breast cancer to determine if older people got the same "bang for the buck" as younger people when given more aggressive modern regimens.

Clinicians traditionally look to lymph node status when determining breast cancer prognosis. But do the nodes really deserve such attention?

Adding a third dimension to the therapeutic field and reversing treatment planning may provide safer and more effective dose delivery, according to recent studies discussed at the Miami Breast Cancer Conference.

Rapid advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer keep clinicians on their toes. And this last year offered no reprieve, according to Debu Tripathy, MD, who highlighted several recent shifts and refinements to practice in his talk at the Miami Breast Cancer Conference.

The combination of biomarkers and molecular pathology will aid oncologists in developing targeted treatments for breast cancer, according to Samuel Aparicio, MD, PhD, who will be delivering a presentation on recognizing breast cancer heterogeneity in targeted treatment at the Miami Breast Cancer Conference this week.

The early promise of treating triple-negative and basal-cell breast cancers with poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors is yet to be realized, according to Lisa A. Carey, MD, who will be delivering a presentation on treatment options for these patients at the Miami Breast Cancer Conference this week.

Axillary lymph node dissections (ALND) remain the standard of care for breast cancer patients that have sentinel lymph node metastases. However, the procedure carries the risk of serious complications such as infection, lymphedema, and seroma.

Results of a 4-year follow-up of patients on the Herceptin Adjuvant (HERA) trial have been published in March edition of Lancet Oncology.

The discovery of Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 (HER2) positive breast cancer subtypes is not yet complete, according to Mark D. Pegram, MD, who will be delivering a presentation on the different clinical outcomes of these subtypes at the Miami Breast Cancer Conference this week.

Are genomic profiles refined enough that they should be used routinely to determine which breast cancer patients should receive adjuvant therapy? According to J. Michael Dixon, MD, who will be presenting the contra argument to this question in a debate at the Miami Breast Cancer Conference this week, the answer is: Not yet.