BREAST CANCER

In patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, node-positive, early breast cancer whose tumors have high clinicopathological risk factors, treatment with abemaciclib in combination with endocrine therapy educed the risk of invasive disease recurrence or death, independent of Ki-67 level, according to results from a subanalysis of the phase 3 monarchE clinical trial.

In the phase 3 MONALEESA-7 trial, patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer had a significant improvement in overall survival and chemotherapy delay when treated with ribociclib plus endocrine therapy compared with placebo.

No significant differences in recurrence were observed between treatment with tamoxifen or anastrozole in postmenopausal women with locally excised ductal carcinoma in situ.

The use of whole breast irradiation can be omitted in patients 65 years and older with pT1-2 tumors on local control at 10 years after breast-conserving surgery and adjuvant endocrine therapy in low risk, older patients.

Patients with Oncotype Dx low-risk recurrence scores were classifed with high accuracy by PreciseDx by using only hematoxylin and eosin stain images and limited clinical data.

In the phase 3 KX-ORAX-001 clinical trial, treatment with paclitaxel in combination with encequidar achieved a 26.5% reduction in the risk of death compared with paclitaxel by intravenous injection in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

A retrospective exploratory analysis of 3 trials of ribociclib in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer confirmed the prognostic value of intrinsic tumor subtype for efficacy outcomes with CDK4/6 inhibition.

A higher risk of new chronic controlled substance use was observed among women who underwent both a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, those who received a breast cancer diagnosis, received chemotherapy and were younger.

Serial circulating tumor cell enumeration in patients with metastatic breast cancer has been shown to strongly predict overall survival outcomes. The prediction is possible when CTC assessments are performed at a median of 29 days following treatment initiation.

Data from a 29-practice consortium shows that oncologists tend to under-recognize substantial symptoms among patients with breast cancer receiving radiotherapy after they have undergone a lumpectomy, according to a presentation during the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The data underscore a need for improvement in symptom detection.

Invasive disease-free survival was prolonged in patients with high-risk, early hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer treated with abemaciclib in combination with standard endocrine therapy in the phase 3 monarchE trial, according to a presentation at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Five-year invasive disease-free survival and overall survival were improved with the addition of chemotherapy to endocrine therapy as treatment of premenopausal, but not postmenopausal, women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, lymph node–positive breast cancer and a recurrence score between 0 and 25.

The most interesting developments and approvals in breast cancer treatment in the last year and expectations regarding data that will be presented on at the upcoming 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Comparing the efficacy of selective HER2 kinase inhibitors in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, it was shown that tucatinib may have been approved in the second-line setting due to it's unique impact on the central nervous system. Another HER2 inhibitor, trastuzumab deruxtecan has demonstrated promise in a phase 2 study and is now being confirmed in a phase 3 study.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology during the 2020 Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting, Ozge Ceyhan-Birsoy, PhD, discussed genetic testing methods for patients with hereditary predisposition and the molecular research underway at MSKCC to improve testing in this patient population.

Patients who received palbociclib and fulvestrant before chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer had greater clinical benefit versus patients who received placebo and fulvestrant, according to an exploratory subgroup analysis of the phase 3 PALOMA-3 trial.

The FDA granted approval to pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy as treatment of patients with locally recurrent unresectable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer whose tumors express PD-L1.

Updated data reported from a phase 3 trial show that patients with HER2- positive early breast cancer had better rates of overall survival after experiencing a pathologic complete response on HER2-targeted therapy, and these responses were observed most often in those with hormone receptor–negative status.

A phase 3 study was initiated for a head-to-head comparison of trastuzumab deruxtecan versus T-DM1 as adjuvant treatment of a subset of patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.

As a greater understanding of triple-negative breast cancer heterogeneity develops over time, combinations of PD-1/PD-L1 plus PARP inhibitors, androgen receptor targeted agents, and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway inhibitors are undergoing evaluation by investigators in the field.

Recent acceleration in the introduction of new regimens for the treatment of estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer has led to significant survival enhancement, but questions remain regarding how patients should be stratified following disease progression with these therapies.

In a presentation at the 2020 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium, Virginia G. Kaklamani, MD, DSc, reviewed the current genomic tools in the triple negative breast cancer landscape that predict response to targeted treatments.

A number of targeted agents have been approved in the setting of metastatic breast cancer, which has allowed for more personalized treatment approaches and underscores the importance of genomic testing.

Breast cancer data reported during the 2020 European Society Medical Oncology Virtual Congress revealed major advances in the treatment paradigm. The agents included in these trials challenged that standard-of-care.

Palbociclib in combination with standard endocrine therapy did not improve invasive disease-free survival in patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer who have residual invasive disease after completing neoadjuvant chemotherapy, missing the primary end point of the phase 3 PENELOPE-B trial.