BREAST CANCER

Breast cancer in younger women needs a different adjuvant treatment strategy from that used in post-menopausal women, but it may not have to include suppressing ovarian function.

As the breast cancer genome continues to be unraveled, a host of new targetable alterations outside of HER2 and the estrogen receptor are beginning to emerge, providing the exciting potential for development of new therapies.

Figuring out how a certain genetic result found through multigene testing might change not only the type of intervention but its timing is the chief challenge, according to Mark Robson, MD, in a presentation at the 2017 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium.

Judith Paice, PhD, RN, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the current pain management for patients with breast cancer.

Adjuvant Dual HER2-Targeted Therapy for HER2+ Early-Stage Breast Cancer

Andrew Seidman, MD, discusses the Watson for Oncology application and the potential for Watson to be a valuable partner for oncologists during the 19^th Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women around the world, and those in low- and middle-income countries experience the most deaths from the disease, representing a major need for improvement with significant challenges. 

Benjamin O. Anderson, MD, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, discusses the current global unmet need for the treatment of patients with breast cancer.

Judith A. Paice, PhD, RN, discusses the best way to approach pain management in breast cancer.

When abemaciclib was added to a non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor in treatment-naive patients with HER2-negative, HR-positive advanced breast cancer, the combination reduced the risk of progression of disease or death by 46% compared with either anastrozole or letrozole alone, according to findings from the phase III MONARCH 3 trial.

In patients with metastatic triple negative breast cancer, turning a nonimmunogenic (“cold”) tumor into an immunogenic (“hot”) tumor appears to be feasible, thereby improving sensitivity to immune therapy with nivolumab.

The combination of taselisib and standard letrozole improved the objective response rate compared to letrozole with a placebo in postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor-positive and HER2-negative early breast cancer, according to findings from the LORELEI study presented at the 2017 ESMO Congress in Madrid, Spain.

Manmeet Ahluwalia, MD, Cleveland Clinic, discusses the prevalence of brain metastases in triple-negative brain cancer.

Tumor shrinkage was induced in women with ER-positive metastatic breast cancer who had progressed on standard anti-estrogen therapies with treatment with Z-endoxifen, a potent derivative of the drug tamoxifen.

A look back at all the FDA news that occurred in the month of August.

The decision deadline on a biologics license application (BLA) for MYL-1401O, a trastuzumab (Herceptin) biosimilar co-developed by Mylan and Biocon, has been extended by 3 months, the FDA has announced. Under the new timeframe, a final decision is expected on or before December 3, 2017.

The FDA has granted breakthrough therapy designation to the investigational HER2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate DS-8201 for the treatment of patients with HER2-positive, locally advanced, or metastatic breast cancer who have been treated with trastuzumab (Herceptin) and pertuzumab (Perjeta) and have disease progression after ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1; Kadcyla).

Breast cancer expert Carlos Arteaga, MD, was recently named director of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Fulvestrant (Faslodex) has been approved by the FDA for use in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative locally-advanced or metastatic breast cancer in postmenopausal women not previously treated with endocrine therapy.

The CDK 4/6 inhibitor ribociclib (Kisqali) has been approved by the European Commission for use in combination with an aromatase inhibitor for the frontline treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone-receptor (HR)–positive, HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

Frankie Ann Holmes, MD, discusses which breast cancer patients can benefit from endocrine therapy and the challenges that still exist with deciding between chemotherapy and endocrine therapy for each patient.

According to findings recently published online in the<em> Journal of Clinical Oncology, </em>12<em>&nbsp;</em>weeks of neoadjuvant T-DM1 (ado-trastuzumab emtansine; Kadcyla) with or without endocrine therapy induced superior pathologic complete response (pCR) compared with trastuzumab (Herceptin) plus endocrine therapy in patients with HER2-positive/HR-positive early breast cancer.