Breast Cancer

This commentary addresses our perspectives from a regulatory standpoint, as well as some controversies related to the use of neoadjuvant therapy as a platform for drug development.

Identifying breast cancer patients who are at low risk for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting before the start of treatment may help avoid unnecessary use of antiemetic medications without compromising quality of care.

We acknowledge that the “more is better” approach may not always hold true. For example, preclinical data provided a rationale for combining pertuzumab with T-DM1, but recent reports suggest that this strategy may not prove more effective than single-agent T-DM1 therapy in the clinic.

The preferred status of CLEOPATRA-like regimens in the first-line HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer setting has recently been challenged by antibody-drug conjugate regimens based on ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1).

In this review, we will discuss multidisciplinary considerations in treating patients with neoadjuvant therapy and highlight areas of controversy and ongoing research.

The biologic rationale for the initial evaluation of preoperative chemotherapy or neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early-stage breast cancer was based on experimental and clinical observations regarding primary tumor cell growth and dissemination.

Preoperative bevacizumab may predominantly benefit breast cancer patients with a high baseline microvessel density, according to a new study.

The overall risk of developing a second primary thyroid or breast tumor is higher in patients with prior breast or thyroid cancer.

New breast cancer screening guidelines from the American Cancer Society recommend pushing the start of screening back by 5 years and screening every other year rather than annually starting at age 55.

An analysis of different breast cancer screening schedules suggests that biennial mammograms may be acceptable for postmenopausal women, but that premenopausal women likely need more frequent screening.

A 35-year-old woman presents with a mass in the left breast. After further evaluation, a biopsy is performed. What is your diagnosis?

Accelerated partial breast irradiation after breast-conserving surgery is as effective as whole breast irradiation for low-risk breast cancer patients.

This review will discuss the current status of surgical management of the axilla for patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

In this interview we discuss the results of the CLEOPATRA trial, which studied the effect of adding pertuzumab to docetaxel and trastuzumab on HER2-positive metastatic 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.