Breast Cancer

It is well recognized that advances in cancer management have most often resulted from a close collaboration between clinical and laboratory investigative efforts.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the College of American Pathologists (CAP) have released updated recommendations for HER2 testing in breast cancer.

Jo Anne Zujewski, MD, head, breast cancer therapeutics, cancer therapy evaluation program, National Cancer Institute (NCI), discusses the development of drugs to treat patients with breast cancer.

Clifford A. Hudis, MD, ASCO president, chief, Breast Cancer Medicine Service, attending physician, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, comments on exploratory biomarker observations from the BOLERO-3 trial.

Breast cancer patients with PI3KCA mutations are less likely to achieve a pathological complete response from dual HER2 blockade in the neoadjuvant setting.

Pertuzumab in combination with trastuzumab and chemotherapy has become the first FDA-approved neoadjuvant treatment for patients with breast cancer

Exploratory analysis of biomarkers in the BOLERO-3 trial suggests that the addition of everolimus to trastuzumab plus vinorelbine for HER2-positive advanced breast cancer may be most beneficial in patients with low PTEN or high pS6 levels.

T-DM1 extended progression-free survival compared with "physician's choice of treatment" in women with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer.

Torsten O. Nielsen, MD, PhD, FRCPC, a professor of pathology at the University of British Columbia, discusses the pros and cons of using the Ki67 as a prognostic marker in breast cancer.

Kathy S. Albain, MD, medical oncologist, Loyola University Chicago, professor, Stritch School of Medicine, director, Breast Clinical Research Program, Thoracic Oncology Research Program, Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, discusses staging versus biology in breast cancer.

Minetta Liu, MD, breast cancer specialist, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, discusses the limitations of radiology in metastatic breast cancer treatment.

The PAM50 test, designed to determine a risk of recurrence score for patients with breast cancer, adds significant prognostic information to clinical decision making and might be superior to other risk assays.

Rebecca L. Aft, MD, PhD, professor of surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a physician at Siteman Cancer Center, discusses the use of bisphosphonates for patients with breast cancer.

G. Thomas Budd, MD, Medical Oncologist, Taussig Cancer Center at Cleveland Clinic, Professor, Hematology & Medical Oncology, Case Western Reserve University, discusses prior treatment with trastuzumab and the effect on two regimens of paclitaxel.

The FDA has approved the first generic formulation of capecitabine, an oral chemotherapeutic that is currently approved to treat patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and metastatic breast cancer.

Constance D. Lehman, MD, PhD, from the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, discusses how imaging can guide a women with breast cancer to make treatment decisions.

David P. Steensma, MD, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, provides insight into the ODAC decision to recommend approval for a neoadjuvant pertuzumab-containing regimen for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

The FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted 13-0 with one abstention in support of pertuzumab in combination with trastuzumab and docetaxel for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer in the neoadjuvant setting.

Suzanne A. W. Fuqua, PhD, professor of medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, talks about the interaction between estrogen receptors (ER) and androgen receptors (AR) in patients with breast cancer.

The novel HDAC inhibitor entinostat in combination with exemestane has received a Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA for its potential to reverse resistance to hormonal therapies used to treat patients with advanced ER-positive breast cancer.

The hope for many targeted therapies is that they will eventually be used in patients with earlier stage disease; for the breast cancer drug pertuzumab (Perjeta), that hope is being put to the test.

Agustin A. Garcia, MD, associate professor of medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, discusses the future role of PARP inhibitors for patients with ovarian cancer and breast cancer.

Research efforts are under way to improve the efficacy of hormone therapy in the management of advanced estrogen receptor-positive (ER) breast cancer, including new strategies for targeting the PI3K/ mTOR pathway.

Richard Finn, MD, from the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, describes the design of a phase III trial looking at palbociclib for the treatment of patients with estrogen receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Puma Biotechnology is a Los Angeles-based development stage biopharmaceutical company that has spent the last couple of years focused on the development of its lead drug candidate, neratinib (PB272).