Breast Cancer

Cardiac effects of pertuzumab and trastuzumab following chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant setting were limited for HER2-positive breast cancer patients.

A recent analysis from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium revealed that community oncology practices are neglecting to use MRI screening for at-risk women, and lower-risk women are being unnecessarily screened.

In this slide show we highlight some of the top news on breast cancer in 2017, including long-term benefits of mammography, treatment advances, pregnancy in survivors, and more.

Undergoing axillary lymph node dissection is associated with increased arm morbidity in younger breast cancer patients compared with sentinel lymph node biopsy.

The PARP inhibitor talazoparib significantly increased progression-free survival over physician’s choice of therapy in a randomized phase III trial of patients with advanced breast cancer and a germline BRCA mutation.

This interview provides perspective on developments in breast cancer treatment in 2017, as well as a preview of what we can expect to change in the treatment of breast cancer in 2018.

Disease-free survival after 9 weeks of adjuvant trastuzumab and standard chemotherapy was not comparable to disease-free survival after 1 year of adjuvant trastuzumab and standard chemotherapy for women with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer. 

After undergoing 5 years of adjuvant endocrine therapy, 2 years of extended anastrozole proved as effective as 5 years for preventing breast cancer recurrence among postmenopausal women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer, according to the results of the ABCSG-16 phase III trial.

A study found that circulating tumor cells are predictive of late recurrence in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer.

An antibody–drug conjugate known as sacituzumab govitecan demonstrated significant clinical activity in heavily pretreated patients with relapsed/refractory metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, according to a new study.

Treatment with gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog can safely and effectively protect ovarian function and has the potential to preserve fertility in premenopausal women undergoing chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer.

Adding vistusertib to fulvestrant failed to demonstrate a benefit over everolimus in patients with ER-positive advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

Undergoing acupuncture significantly reduced joint pain related to treatment with aromatase inhibitors in postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer.

Adding trastuzumab to adjuvant chemotherapy did not result in improved rates of invasive disease-free survival in patients with early-stage breast cancer and low levels of HER2 expression, according to a new study.

Increasing chemotherapy dose intensity reduced the risk of recurrence and death over standard chemotherapy regimens, according to a meta-analysis of women with early-stage breast cancer. 

The addition of the CDK4/6 inhibitor ribociclib to endocrine therapy with either tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor significantly improved progression-free survival among premenopausal and perimenopausal women with breast cancer.

The combination of pembrolizumab and trastuzumab showed promising clinical benefit in patients with trastuzumab-resistant HER2-positive advanced breast cancer who express PD-L1, according to a new study.

A study found no difference in outcomes between 2 and 5 years of treatment with zoledronate after chemotherapy in early breast cancer patients, suggesting the longer duration may not be necessary.

Traditional neoadjuvant chemotherapy along with dual HER2-targeted blockade yielded significantly better response rates than a novel approach using HER2-targeted chemotherapy plus HER2-targeted blockade, according to a randomized phase III trial.

The FDA approved a biosimilar for trastuzumab, Ogivri, for the treatment of patients with HER2-positive breast and stomach cancer.

The OncoArray Consortium, an endeavor involving 550 researchers from 6 continents, identified new target genes that may allow for better definition of the pathways and mechanisms underlying breast cancer susceptibility.

In this interview with Mary Daly, MD, PhD, she gives an overview of multigene panel testing for breast cancer, and how they can be used by clinicians to interpret risk and treat accordingly.

An intermittent schedule with extended adjuvant letrozole did not improve disease-free survival in postmenopausal breast cancer patients.

A 5-year follow-up analysis showed that 1 year of extended adjuvant therapy with neratinib, given after chemotherapy and trastuzumab, can significantly improve rates of clinically relevant relapses in women with HER2-positive breast cancer.

Duloxetine resulted in reduced AI-associated musculoskeletal symptoms compared with placebo in women with early-stage breast cancer.

In this Q&A we discuss the role of PARP inhibitors in cancer treatment, their role in triple-negative breast cancer patients and look forward to ongoing trials in this setting.

Even after 5 years of adjuvant endocrine therapy, women with ER-positive breast cancer experienced a steady rate of recurrences for as long as 20 years.

An intense dose-dense chemotherapy approach offers better survival vs standard therapy, extending to 10 years in breast cancer patients with extensive lymph nodes.

Adding trastuzumab to anthracycline and taxane-based chemotherapy does not result in worsening of long-term cardiac outcomes in patients with node-positive, HER2-positive early breast cancer, according to a new study.

Researchers have developed nanoparticles that can carry targeted therapy to tumors with bone metastases, which may have particular benefit for breast cancer patients.