CancerNetwork®’s Week in Review: April 5, 2021

Each Monday, CancerNetwork® highlights the most important content from the previous week in oncology news.

Among the top news from last week includes a case study published in the Journal ONCOLOGY® of a previously healthy woman, aged 32 years, with a 6-month history of a left-breast tumor, mastalgia, and swollen axillary nodes.

Breast pCR, Nodal Status Can Predict Nodal pCR for Specific Cancer Subtypes Treated With Chemotherapy

Data presented at the Society of Surgical Oncology 2021 International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care found that breast pathologic complete response (pCR) was predictive of nodal pCR for patients with HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer treated with chemotherapy.

Anna Weiss, MD, concluded the results section of her presentation by noting that patients with breast and nodal residual disease had worse overall survival rates while patients with nodal pCR and breast pCR had the best overall survival rates at a median follow-up of 103 months.

Pembrolizumab Induces Notable Response Rate in Patients With Pretreated Vulvar Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Patients with heavily pretreated vulvar squamous cell carcinoma experienced responses with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) monotherapy in a nonrandomized phase 2 trial, regardless of PD-L1 status.

Results of the phase 2 KEYNOTE-158 trial (NCT02628067) that were presented at the Society of Gynecological Oncology (SGO) 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer demonstrated that patients with previously treated vulvar squamous cell carcinoma who received single-agent pembrolizumab experienced durable responses, and this was seen across PD-L1 expression levels.

The Role of Postmastectomy Radiotherapy in Locally Advanced Breast Cancer After Pathological Complete Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Experts examine the case of a previously healthy woman, aged 32 years, who presented to the oncology clinic with a 6-month history of left-breast tumor, mastalgia, and swollen axillary nodes.

Worldwide, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death in women; regional and distant recurrences occur even when appropriate breast and axillary surgery is performed, thus compromising survival.

Salpingo-Oophorectomy Associated With Reduced Breast Cancer Risk in Patients With BRCA1/2 Pathogenic Variants

A study from JAMA Oncology investigated the association between BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants and risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy for breast cancer, concluding that a benefit exists for women in the immediate 5 years post-surgery.

More, the research found a longer-term association with cumulative breast cancer risk in patients carrying BRCA1 pathogenic variants.

Expert Explores the Current Status of Radium-223 Use in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer

During a presentation at the 14th Annual New York GU Interdisciplinary Prostate Cancer Congress® and Other Genitourinary Malignancies, Scott T. Tagawa, MD, reviewed important findings related to radium-223 and its use in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Wrapping up his discussion of radium-223, Tagawa said, “In summary, radium-223 will lead to an overall survival benefit in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer to the bone with limited extraosseous disease. We should not start abiraterone/prednisone and radium-223 at the same time, and we should use a bone health agent when we use this drug.”

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