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–small cell lung cancer. Other big areas during this year’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–PD-1 agent.

Ribociclib in combination with fulvestrant showed an improvement in progression-free survival in postmenopausal women with 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 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 hormone receptor–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.

Combination taselisib plus fulvestrant demonstrated a modest progression-free survival benefit of 2 months compared with fulvestrant alone for the treatment of patients with estrogen receptor&ndash;positive, <em>PIK3CA</em>-mutant locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

Optimizing the Management of HER2+ Inflammatory Breast Cancer

In patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer, 6 months of adjuvant treatment with&nbsp;trastuzumab (Herceptin)&nbsp;was noninferior for disease-free survival compared with the standard 12-month schedule, according to findings from the phase III PERSEPHONE trial presented ahead of the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Distinctive&nbsp;biologic features of breast cancer in men were determined in a recent&nbsp;analysis of clinical characteristics, gene expression, and 21-gene Breast Recurrence Score, which also&nbsp;suggested that that RS testing may have an important prognostic role for both men and women.

While PARP inhibitors have demonstrated success in ovarian cancer previously, they are finally impacting the treatment paradigm for patients with <em>BRCA</em>-positive breast cancers, according to Nadine M. Tung, MD.&nbsp;

Everolimus proved to be effective tool for overcoming endocrine resistance in postmenopausal women with ER-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer that have become resistant to aromatase inhibitor therapy.

Tiffany A. Traina, MD, a medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, discusses the current treatment landscape for patients with triple-negative breast cancer.

The FDA approved several indications throughout the month of April 2018.&nbsp;A number of drugs were granted priority review and Fast Track designation. The FDA also halted all clinical trials using&nbsp;tazemetostat as treatment, and new initiatives were introduced&nbsp;to help ease the development of genetic and genomic-based tests.&nbsp;Check out our list of all FDA happenings from April 2018.

When findings of larotrectinib,&nbsp;a pan-TRK&nbsp;inhibitor co-developed by Bayer and Loxo Oncology, that generated significant excitement for the treatment of both adult and pediatric patients with TRK fusion cancers,&nbsp;were presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting, the small molecule was lauded as a future standard of care for patients with advanced solid tumors harboring a TRK fusion.

The immunotherapy agent balixafortide (POL6326) has been granted Fast Track designation by the FDA in combination with eribulin (Halaven) for the treatment of patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who have previously received at least 2 chemotherapeutic regimens in the metastatic setting, according to Polyphor, the manufacturer of the potent and highly selective CXCR4 antagonist.

Fabrice Andr&eacute;, MD, PhD, professor in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, France, addresses questions regarding the use of platinum regimens for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). He discusses 2 platinum agents, cisplatin and carboplatin, and when it is recommended that these agents be used.&nbsp;

Pembrolizumab produced a &ldquo;modest but durable&rdquo; response in heavily pretreated women with PD-L1&ndash;positive, estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, according to results from the KEYNOTE-028 trial which were recently published in <em>Clinical Cancer Research</em>.

Updated results of the&nbsp;phase III randomized OlympiAD trial, presented at the 2018 AACR Annual Meeting, suggest women with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer associated with a germline <em>BRCA</em> mutation may have a slight survival advantage with a poly polymerase inhibitor instead of chemotherapy.

According to the results from a phase I study, BLU-667, a next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor, was well-tolerated and demonstrated clinical benefit in patients with advanced,&nbsp;<em>RET</em>-altered solid tumors who had progressed on previous therapies. These findings were presented April 14 to 18 at the ASCR Annual Meeting 2018 in Chicago, Illinois.

Jennifer Litton, MD, associate professor in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses her opinion on the use of PARP inhibitors in the field of breast cancer.&nbsp;

Jennifer Litton, MD, associate professor in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the role of biosimilars in the treatment of breast cancer.

In an interview with&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Mark Robson, MD, discussed the current and future role of olaparib, as well as the role of genetic testing in the treatment of breast cancer.

A&nbsp;marketing authorization application for olaparib (Lynparza) for the&nbsp;treatment of women with <em>BRCA</em>-mutated, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who previously received chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant, or metastatic setting has been accepted by the&nbsp;European Medicines Agency.

A marketing authorization for ABP 980, a biosimilar to trastuzumab (Herceptin), has been issued a positive opinion by the&nbsp;European Medicines Agency&rsquo;s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP).