BREAST CANCER

Breast Cancer

In patients with metastatic or unresectable locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer, frontline treatment with atezolizumab (Tecentriq) plus nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) significantly reduced the risk of disease progression or death compared with nab-paclitaxel, according to topline results from the phase III IMpassion130 study. 

Overall survival was not improved with the combination of palbociclib and fulvestrant compared with fulvestrant and placebo in the phase III PALOMA-3 trial for patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who received prior endocrine therapy, according to Pfizer, the developer of the CDK4/6 inhibitor.

The Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research released the first Community Care Cancer in Washington State: Quality and Cost Report to provide transparency for patients and health providers, establishing a more value-based care model.

Multiple pivotal studies have led to CDK4/6 inhibitors such as ribociclib, abemaciclib, and palbociclib becoming the standard of care for women with metastatic ER-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer. Speaking at the 11th European Breast Cancer Conference in Barcelona, Spain, Nicholas C. Turner, MD, PhD, a consultant medical oncologist with The Royal Marsden Hospital NHS Trust, explained how tumors resist treatment with CDK4/6 inhibitors and how that resistance can be overcome.

Promising antitumor activity was seen in patients with&nbsp;heavily pretreated HER2-positive breast cancer with or without brain metastases with the use of tucatinib in combination with capecitabine, trastuzumab, or both agents, according to phase Ib findings published in <em>The Lancet Oncology</em>.

In a presentation during a controversy session at the 11th European Breast Cancer Conference, Angelo Di Leo, MD, PhD, explained where genomic signatures have shown the most benefit and potential ways forward to make recurrence scores a truly beneficial marker for clinicians to use.

The indication for the&nbsp;Orbis Paxman Hair Loss Cooling System has been expanded by the FDA to include the prevention of chemotherapy-related alopecia in patients with solid tumors, according to Paxman, the maker of the device. The system was previously approved&nbsp;to treat chemotherapy-related alopecia in patients with breast cancer.

Progression-free survival was found to be almost identical at 48 weeks with&nbsp;MYL-1401O in combination with a taxane as initial therapy followed by MYL-1401O monotherapy as maintenance versus trastuzumab in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, according to phase III findings of the&nbsp;HERITAGE trial. Results of the trial were presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

According to Pfizer, the manufacturer of the PARP inhibitor talazoparib,&nbsp;a priority review was granted by the FDA to a new drug application for this PARP inhibitor for treatment of patients with germline <em>BRCA </em>mutation&ndash;positive, HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

The 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting was a great success, with over 40,000 people in attendance and over 5000 abstracts presented from June 1-5 in Chicago, Illinois. Data from several phase III trials in lung cancer were presented, with especially significant results in non&ndash;small cell lung cancer. Other big areas during this year&rsquo;s meeting included breast, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and hematologic cancers.

According to a preliminary prospective study presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, half of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer achieved disease control with a treatment combination of a poly polymerase inhibitor and an anti&ndash;PD-1 agent.

Ribociclib in combination with fulvestrant showed an improvement in progression-free survival in postmenopausal women with&nbsp;hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer; the benefit was seen both in treatment-naive patients, and in patients who had received 1 prior line of therapy, according to the results from the phase III MONALEESA-3 trial presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting.

Ipatasertib, an oral AKT inhibitors, demonstrated early survival results as a part of a frontline combination regimen with paclitaxel for the treatment&nbsp;of locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, according to interim results of the phase II LOTUS trial.

Adjuvant endocrine therapy alone is sufficient for patients with&nbsp;hormone receptor&ndash;positive, HER2-negative, node-negative early-stage breast cancer who have an intermediate risk of distant recurrence compared with endocrine therapy in combination with chemotherapy. Results of the phase III TAILORx trial presented during the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting showed that adjuvant endocrine therapy achieved noninferiority to chemoendocrine therapy.

According to findings of the IMPACT study discussed at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, overall survival was improved with personalized therapy based on tumor molecular profiling in patients with advanced, hard-to-treat cancers.