BREAST CANCER

Therapies targeted to tumor biology hold the promise of improved outcomes for patients with breast cancer.

The combination of letrozole with either the CDK4/6 inhibitor LEE011 or the PI3 kinase Inhibitor BYL719 demonstrated clinical activity for women with ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

The poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor veliparib exhibits antitumor activity and is safe and tolerable on a continuous dosing schedule when used for the treatment of patients with BRCA-positive and BRCA-wild type tumors.

HER2 blockade may enhance the duration of response to fulvestrant, according to researchers from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

A novel HER2-derived peptide (GP2) vaccine designed to stimulate CD8+ cytotoxic T-lymphocytes reduced the rate of breast cancer recurrence and proved safe and well tolerated in an adjuvant setting.

Hadeel Assad, MD, hematology/oncology fellow, Providence Hospital and Medical Center, discusses an analysis of the impact of breast cancer diagnosis on sexual dysfunction.

Clifford A. Hudis, MD, discusses obesity and menopausal status as determinants of procarcinogenic breast inflammation.

Long-term follow-up of a phase III clinical trial shows strong trends toward a greater likelihood of resuming menses and becoming pregnant when a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH) analog is administered with chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer.

Breast conserving therapy (BCT) improves overall survival compared with other local treatments in patients with stage I breast cancer, according to an examination of the National Cancer Database (NCDB).

Katharine Yao, MD, gives an overview of an analysis that looked at patient preferences prior to surgery.

Sunil Verma, MD, MSEd, FRCPC, discusses evolving standards of early stage HER2-positive breast cancer.

Deanna J. Attai, MD, assistant clinical professor, Department of Surgery, UCLA, discusses breast cancer survivor support and education on Twitter.

Eleftherios Mamounas, MD, MPH, discusses locoregional recurrence and tailoring radiotherapy following neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

The combination of multiple independent factors minimized the impact of baseline stage for predicting locoregional recurrence (LRR) following neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer.

Postsurgery complications are infrequent among breast cancer patients undergoing surgery with reconstruction; however, according to a large database study, the rates of certain complications, including reoperation, blood transfusion, and implant loss, are higher with bilateral mastectomy versus unilateral mastectomy.

The actress Angelina Jolie’s decision to undergo a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation—associated with an increased risk of breast and/or ovarian cancer—apparently sparked an “Angelina effect” on public health.

One of the first studies to prospectively examine women’s breast surgery preferences has revealed that newly diagnosed women with breast cancer who decide to undergo contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM), may be making this decision as result of high anxiety and fear of recurrence.

Women who received signed letters from their family physician along with scheduled postcard reminders are more likely to return for mammography screening than women who only received a postcard.

A New Drug Application has been submitted to the FDA for palbociclib plus letrozole as a frontline treatment for postmenopausal women with ER-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.

Lori Goldstein, MD, director, The Naomi and Phil Lippincott Breast Evaluation Center, deputy associate director, Clinical Research, Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses the possibility of using endocrine resistance therapy to treat patients with early stage breast cancer.

Debu Tripathy, MD, co-leader, Women's Cancer Program, University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the goals of the SystHERs Registry.

The favorable safety profile of T-DM1 (ado-trastuzumab emtansine; Kadcyla) makes it apt to be looked at in other settings of breast cancer, according to a large study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Ragene Rivera, MD, medical oncologist, Texas Oncology-El Paso Cancer Treatment Center, discusses the next treatment steps for a patient with HER2-negative chemotherapy-resistant metastatic breast cancer.

Linda D. Bosserman, MD, FACP, president, medical oncologist, Wilshire Oncology Medical Group, discusses how she determines if a patient is resistant to a taxane or anthracyclines.

Linda D. Bosserman, MD, FACP, president, medical oncologist, Wilshire Oncology Medical Group, discusses how she would treat a patient with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer.

Ragene Rivera, MD, medical oncologist, Texas Oncology-El Paso Cancer Treatment Center, discusses how she decides between hormone therapies in patients with ER+/PR+ tumors.

Claudine Isaacs, MD, professor, medical Director, Fisher Center for Familial Cancer Research, co-director, Breast Cancer Program, Georgetown University/Lombardi Cancer Center, discusses some of the challenges physicians are facing in the field of hereditary breast cancer.

Women harboring a loss-of-function mutation in the PALB2 gene demonstrated an increased risk of developing breast cancer that was similar to the predisposition seen with mutations in BRCA.

Edith A. Perez, MD, Breast Cancer: Giant of Cancer Care; deputy director at large, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Serene M. and Frances C. Durling professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, discusses a genomic analysis of immune function genes and clinical outcome in the NCCTG (Alliance) N9831 adjuvant trastuzumab trial.

Joyce A. O’Shaughnessy, MD, from Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center, discusses the results of a recent breast cancer study.