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Among the high-quality abstract presentations at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), a few always stand out as particularly meritorious. Each year, The ASCOPost asks our Associate Editor, breast cancer specialist Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, to give us his picks. Dr. Abraham is Chairman of ...
On January 27, 2023, elacestrant was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for postmenopausal women or adult men with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative, ESR1-mutated advanced or metastatic breast cancer with disease progression following at least one line of endocrine ...
Investigators have found that in breast cancer survivors, the cancer’s stage and receptor status may help clinicians predict whether and when cancer might recur after initial treatment, according to a new study published by Neuman et al in Cancer. Study Methods and Results In the new study, the...
In an analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, and colleagues described 10-year survival outcomes from the phase II APT trial assessing adjuvant paclitaxel/trastuzumab in patients with node-negative, HER2-positive breast cancer. Study Details The U.S. multicenter trial...
Investigators found that American Indian/Native American women living in higher-income communities did not have a higher mammography uptake compared with American Indian/Native American women living in lower-income communities, according to a new study published by Christensen et al in the American ...
On March 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved abemaciclib (Verzenio) plus endocrine therapy (tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor) for the adjuvant treatment of adult patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, node-positive early breast cancer at high risk of...
Black women at high risk of developing breast cancer may face a variety of obstacles keeping them from receiving preventive care that could increase their chances of survival if they did develop the disease, according to a new study published by Padamsee et al in PLOS One. The new findings provide...
In an analysis of National Cancer Database data reported in JAMA Oncology, Peiffer et al found “minimal prognostic differences” between HER2-low vs HER2-negative breast cancer, with the findings not supporting classification of HER2-low disease as a distinct disease subtype. Study Details The...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Nadia Harbeck, MD, PhD, and colleagues, 5-year follow-up from the phase II WSG-ADAPT-TP trial indicated that pathologic complete response (pCR) was associated with better outcomes irrespective of receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy among patients with ...
In a Dutch study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stroot et al identified the prevalence of high-grade serous carcinoma at risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy in asymptomatic BRCA1/2 pathogenic variant carriers. Study Details The study included asymptomatic BRCA1/2 pathogenic variant...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Anita Y. Kinney, PhD, RN, and colleagues found that a phone-based tailored risk counseling and navigation intervention resulted in a higher proportion of patients with ovarian or high-risk breast cancers receiving cancer genetic risk...
Commenting on the study from Tata Memorial Centre for The ASCO Post, Adam M. Brufsky, MD, Professor of Medicine, Associate Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and Co-Director of the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, noted that the...
In a phase III randomized trial conducted in India, the addition of weekly carboplatin to standard taxane/anthracycline–based neoadjuvant chemotherapy improved pathologic complete response rates, event-free survival, and overall survival in patients with triple-negative breast cancer patients aged...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ian H. Kunkler, MB, BChir, MA, FRCR, and colleagues, the phase III PRIME II trial has shown a higher risk of local recurrence with the omission of adjuvant radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery in patients aged ≥ 65 years with hormone...
Patients with early-stage estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer who live in low-income neighborhoods may be more likely to have more aggressive tumor biology and significantly lower overall survival than those living in higher-income neighborhoods, according to a new study published by Ma...
In a retrospective, population-based, case-control study reported in JAMA Network Open, Larsen et al found that patients receiving anthracyclines for breast cancer or lymphoma were at a significantly elevated risk of congestive heart failure vs noncancer controls. No significant difference in risk...
In a single-institution study reported in JAMA Oncology, Eckhert et al found that patients with breast cancer from sex and gender minority groups experienced delayed diagnosis and had a shorter time to cancer recurrence compared to cisgender heterosexual patients. Study Details In the...
The latest analysis of the TROPiCS-02 breast cancer trial showed that the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan-hziy is effective in patients with a wide range of Trop-2 expression levels. The findings were reported at the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium by Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, ...
Suboptimal treatment, which often underlies worse outcomes for cancer in racial minorities, did not explain a recent finding from the landmark RxPONDER study: non-Hispanic Black women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, lymph node–positive breast cancer had worse outcomes compared with...
In an analysis of the SOFT trial, the Breast Cancer Index accurately identified premenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive early breast cancer who may benefit from ovarian function suppression in addition to adjuvant endocrine therapy. The findings were reported by Ruth O’Regan, MD, Chair...
In a study using data from the European OnCovid registry reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tagliamento et al found that the severity of COVID-19 infection in patients with breast cancer decreased during the Omicron variant phase of the pandemic. In addition, a full vaccine course...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Vratislav Strnad, MD, PhD, and colleagues, 10-year outcomes in a phase III GEC-ESTRO (Groupe Européen de Curiethérapie and European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology) trial have shown no significant difference in ipsilateral breast cancer recurrence with...
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a new Global Breast Cancer Initiative Framework, providing a roadmap to attain targets to save 2.5 million lives from breast cancer by 2040. The new framework recommends that countries implement three pillars of health promotion—early detection,...
On February 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sacituzumab govitecan-hziy (Trodelvy) for patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic, hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative (immunohistochemistry [IHC] 0, IHC 1+, or IHC 2+ with a negative in situ...
The newly identified category of “HER2-low” breast cancer has raised many new issues in this malignancy now that the DESTINY Breast-041 trial determined that fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) may effectively treat this tumor. Among the issues are challenges in accurately identifying just...
Compared to other common supplemental screening methods, breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was superior at detecting breast cancer in patients with dense breasts, according to a new study published by Hussein et al in Radiology. Background Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer...
Age-based heuristics may lead to large differences in breast cancer treatment based on small differences in chronologic age, according to a new study published by Talcott et al in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • and Physics. Background Radiation therapy often is given...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Josephine M.N. Lopes Cardozo, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that a higher score on a polygenic risk score consisting of 313 common genetic variants (the PRS313) was generally associated with more favorable tumor characteristics in patients...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Aranzazu Fernandez-Martinez, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that several B-cell–related gene signatures provided better prediction of pathologic complete response and event-free survival than tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) levels among patients with...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Corey W. Speers, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the sensitivity to endocrine therapy (SET2,3) index and the 21-gene breast recurrence score (RS) were not correlated in defining prognosis among postmenopausal patients with estrogen...
On January 27, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved elacestrant (Orserdu) for postmenopausal women or adult men with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative, ESR1-mutated advanced or metastatic breast cancer with disease progression following at least one line of endocrine...
As reported in The Lancet by Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, and colleagues, updated results of the phase III DESTINY-Breast03 trial showed significantly improved overall survival with fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) vs ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in patients with HER2-positive unresectable or...
Isaac Craig Henderson, MD, passed away at the age of 81 at his home in San Francisco on December 26, 2022, after a brief illness. Dr. Henderson was an internationally known medical oncologist who specialized in breast cancer, beginning his career at Harvard’s then-designated Sidney Farber Cancer...
Nancy Chan, MD, Director of Breast Cancer Clinical Research at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York, commented on the monarchE analysis for The ASCO Post. She noted that the study investigated the addition of adjuvant abemaciclib (an oral CDK4/6 inhibitor) to endocrine therapy in a...
Results of a planned interim overall survival analysis of the phase III monarchE trial offered further support for the addition of abemaciclib to adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, node-positive, high-risk disease, according to Stephen R.D....
In the DBTUST study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Berg et al found that the addition of screening ultrasound to digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) improved detection of cancer in patients with dense breasts—but also increased the rate of false-positive findings. Study Details In the ...
In a phase II trial (S1416) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rodler et al found that the addition of the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor veliparib to cisplatin significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with germline BRCA1/2 wild-type advanced triple-negative breast...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Meduri et al, a 5-year analysis from the phase III IRMA trial has shown higher rates of adverse cosmesis and some late toxicities with external-beam accelerated partial-breast irradiation (APBI) vs whole-breast irradiation (WBI) in women with stage ...
The combination of palbociclib and fulvestrant did not prolong progression-free survival compared to fulvestrant alone in patients with hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who had disease progression on prior treatment with a CDK4/6 inhibitor and endocrine therapy,...
Preserving fertility is a driving concern for many young women with breast cancer. Many of these women have hormone receptor–positive breast cancer and are treated with adjuvant endocrine therapy for 5 to 10 years, which is known to compromise fertility. Younger women who may want to take a break...
The oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) camizestrant improved progression-free survival, as compared with fulvestrant, in previously treated postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer in the phase II SERENA-2 trial. These results were reported at the 2022 San Antonio Breast...
A pilot study provides a signal that the novel HER2 antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd), is active in the neoadjuvant setting in patients with HER2-low breast cancer. Overall response rates were 75% with T-DXd alone and 63% when T-DXd was combined with endocrine therapy...
The combination of capivasertib, an AKT pathway inhibitor, plus fulvestrant, an estrogen receptor antagonist, significantly improved progression-free survival compared with fulvestrant alone in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, according to results of...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yadav et al estimated the risk of contralateral breast cancer among patients with invasive breast cancer and germline pathogenic variants in ATM, BRCA1, BRCA2, CHEK2, and PALB2. Study Details The study population consisted of 15,104...
Many women with two or three cancerous lesions in the breast can safely undergo lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy, according to the results of a prospective phase II trial reported at the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 In this study, local recurrence rates after breast-conserving ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Olivia Pagani, MD, and colleagues, 13-year follow-up in a combined analysis of the phase III TEXT and SOFT trials has shown continued disease-free survival and distant recurrence–free interval benefit—but no overall survival benefit—with exemestane ...
Researchers have identified unique molecular features responsible for the development and progression of metastatic breast cancer, according to a novel study published by Garcia-Recio et al in Nature Cancer. They discovered that one of the key features involves changes in the immune system that are ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sjöström et al identified a 16-gene signature—Profile for the Omission of Local Adjuvant Radiation, or POLAR—that predicted low likelihood of benefit from adjuvant radiotherapy in preventing locoregional recurrence in patients with...
Researchers have found that measuring the activation of immune system B cells may be more effective than measuring the activation of either T cells or tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in predicting whether patients with HER2-positive breast cancer will respond to treatment. These findings were ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jayasekera et al identified the benefits and harms of using risk-reducing medication in addition to screening in patients with high-risk, estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer. As stated by the investigators, “Recent studies,...