BREAST CANCER

Lung Cancer

Tumor reduction for patients with ER-positive breast cancer can be achieved with endocrine therapy and can possibly avoid the need for chemotherapy or even surgery in some patients. Hyman B. Muss, MD, who presented at the 2018 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, said that deciding how long to continue this therapy can be tricky, however.

Uttara Nayar, PhD, shares the findings of recent studies in patients with ER+ breast cancer. Findings have shown that acquired HER2 mutations lead to endocrine resistance, the most frequent cause of breast cancer mortality in the country.

Harold J. Burstein, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, explains how ovary suppression is done in patients with breast cancer. This is a particularly important treatment for younger women who still wish to have children one day.

Abemaciclib, the only CDK4/6 inhibitor approved as a single-agent, has amassed several clinical indications for patients with metastatic breast cancer. The findings from the phase III MONARCH2 and 3 trials, as well as the phase II MONARCH1 study led to these approvals. Each trial showed improvements in progression-free survival, especially in patients with visceral disease and endocrine therapy resistance.

Presented at the 2018 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, results from the phase III OlympiAD trial demonstrated improvements in progression-free survival with olaparib over treatment of physician&#39;s choice. These results were consistent regardless of the baseline tumor burden for patients with HER2-negative breast cancer with a germline <em>BRCA</em>1/2 mutation.

The results of the phase III PALOMA-2 study were presented at the 2018 Miami Breast Cancer Conference. According to the deep analysis, the CDK 4/6 inhibitor palbociclib showed significant efficacy in combination with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole in the frontline setting of estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-negative, postmenopausal metastatic breast cancer.

Lilly Oncology has hired Maura Dickler, MD, to serve as vice president of late phase development, beginning May 7, 2018. She will report to Levi Garraway, MD, PhD, senior vice president of global development and medical affairs of Lilly Oncology.

According to results from the phase III MONALEESA-7 trial presented at the 2018 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, the progression-free survival benefit for ribociclib in pre- or perimenopausal women with hormone receptor&ndash;positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer had been sustained across patient subgroups.

23andMe, Inc. has received authorization from the FDA for the first-ever direct-to-consumer genetic test for cancer risk.

Susan M. Domchek, MD, director of the Basser Center for BRCA at Penn Medicine, discusses the role biomarkers have in the treatment of patients with breast cancer. Identifying biomarkers in patients early on, such as knowledge of estrogen receptor status, can lead to better treatment plans, Domchek says.

Fatima Cardoso, MD, medical oncologist at the Champalimaud Clinical Centre in Portugal, explains the biggest issue in treatment of male breast cancer is due to lack of education. Male patients are most commonly diagnosed in the advanced stages because of this and are commonly given the wrong treatments, says Cardoso.

Lung Cancer

According to findings published in<em> Nature Communications, </em>a&nbsp;blood test detecting early changes in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) may provide earlier indication of whether patients with hormone receptor&ndash;positive, HER2-negative breast cancer are responding to the CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib (Ibrance).

A wave of novel treatments and FDA approvals have flooded the HER2-positive breast cancer space.

New indications were approved by the FDA within the last month, including abemaciclib for HER2-negative breast cancer, durvalumab for non&ndash;small cell lung cancer, and abiraterone acetate for castration-sensitive prostate cancer.

According to results from a retrospective study published in the <em>Journal of Clinical Oncology, </em>low-coverage genome-wide sequencing of cell-free DNA from plasma is capable of profiling cancer genomes from blood and predicting survival outcomes for patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.