BREAST CANCER

The combination of abemaciclib and fulvestrant has demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in overall survival compared with fulvestrant and placebo in women with HR–positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer who have previously received endocrine therapy, according to updated interim results from the phase III MONARCH 2 trial.

Carey K. Anders, MD, spoke with <em>Targeted Oncology</em> about treatment options emerging to improve outcomes for patients with metastatic breast cancer and secondary brain metastases.

The combination of pembrolizumab with chemotherapy demonstrated a benefit in terms of pathological complete response when used as neoadjuvant therapy compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with triple-negative breast cancer, according to interim results of the pivotal phase III KEYNOTE-522 trial.

Neratinib has received approval from Health Canada for the treatment of patients with early-stage, hormone receptor&ndash;positive, HER2-overexpressed/amplified breast cancer in the extended adjuvant setting. The agent should be given to patients 1 year after completing trastuzumab-based adjuvant therapy.<br /> &nbsp;

Breast Cancer

Jane Lowe Meisel, MD, reviewed systemic therapy options for treating patients with breast cancer with a group of physicians during a&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology&nbsp;</em>live case-based peer perspectives discussion. Meisel explained the treatment considerations she makes for treating patients with breast cancer during the dinner event in terms of 2 case studies.

General Cancer

The SOLAR-1 findings were presented during a satellite symposium at the 2019 European Society for Medical Oncology Breast Cancer Annual Congress in Berlin, Germany.&nbsp;The trial demonstrated the role of&nbsp;<em>PIK3CA&nbsp;</em>as a predictive marker for alpelisib&rsquo;s clinical efficacy, said Peter A. Fasching, MD, associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, during the symposium.

Preventive strategies for severe diarrhea associated with adjuvant treatment with neratinib improved tolerability for the agent when patients received budesonide or colestipol-with-loperamide prophylaxis, according to findings from the CONTROL study.

Biomarker expansion has enjoyed a boom since 2006, with patient incidence of positive biomarkers reaching up to 50% in non&ndash;small cell lung cancer and melanoma and 25% in acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes, according&nbsp; to the <em>Global Oncology Trends 2018</em> report.

Patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer receiving frontline HER2-targeted therapy with pertuzumab&nbsp;and trastuzumab followed by T-DM1 in the second-line setting may be able to forgo chemotherapy without increasing the risk of early death, according to results from the phase II PERNETTA trial.

Debu Tripathy, MD, of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center, was an investigator in the phase III MONALEESA-7 trial. The purpose of the study was to examine how endocrine therapy, in combination with a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, affects progression-free survival and overall survival in premenopausal patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.