Breast Cancer

Efforts to improve guidelines continue for HER2 testing and the evaluation of whether patients' tumors are estrogen receptor-positive and progesterone receptor-positive.

An effective alternative to mastectomy for early stage disease regardless of age or hormone receptor status.

Edith A. Perez, MD, from the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Florida, reviews clinical trials that are investigating the optimal adjuvant treatment for patients with breast cancer.

A new study found that patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who are receiving anti-HER2 therapy could prevent or delay resistance when a phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) inhibitor is added during treatment.

A pair of studies could change the way patients are evaluated for mutations of BRCA1 and BRCA2, two cancer susceptibility genes closely associated with breast and ovarian cancers, as well as other tumor types.

William J. Gradishar, MD, from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, reviews results from the phase III LEA trial that investigated add-on bevacizumab in breast cancer.

Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital, discusses trials investigating cabozantinib in breast cancer.

David Schuster, MD, director, from Emory University, compares the efficacy of bone scans and FDG-PET/CT scans for detecting bone metastases in patients with breast cancer.

Debu Tripathy, MD, from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses a phase II trial that examined the CDK inhibitor PD 0332991 for women with advanced estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

Edith A. Perez, MD, from the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Florida, discusses the results of a phase III study comparing the efficacy of eribulin mesylate to capecitabine in patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

Treating estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer without sparking resistance is a complex endeavor that should involve simultaneously targeting the hormone-signaling and PI3 kinase molecular pathways

William J. Gradishar, MD, from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, discusses results from the international ATLAS study that was presented at the 2012 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Circulating tumor cell counts can provide a variety of useful information for clinicians treating patients with metastatic breast cancer.

A retrospective study of older women with early-stage breast cancer who received adjuvant trastuzumab alone or in combination with anthracyclines has revealed a higher incidence of heart failure and cardiomyopathy.

An interview with Jenny C. Chang, MB BChir, MD, who broke new ground in cancer research when she identified and patented a 493-gene signature for breast cancer.

Carlos L. Arteaga, MD, from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, describes key takeaway points for practicing oncologists, clinical investigators, and scientists from the 2012 SABCS.

The mental toll and stress of a breast cancer diagnosis might factor into the cognitive impairment experienced during chemotherapy treatment, commonly referred to as "chemo brain."

Christopher Twelves, MD, discusses results from a phase III trial that compared capecitabine to eribulin mesylate in women with metastatic breast cancer.

Justin M. Balko, PharmD, PhD, from the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, discusses research into clinically targetable genetic alterations in patients with triple-negative breast cancer.

Long-term follow-up results showed that the hypofractionated regimens were as effective as the 50-Gy standard in women with early-stage breast cancer.

Eight-year follow-up data from the phase III HERA trial has confirmed that 1-year of adjuvant trastuzumab should remain the treatment standard in women with HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer.

John Yarnold, MBBS, from The Institute of Cancer Research in London, discusses results from the START trials that examined hypofractionated radioatherapy for women with early breast cancer.

Patients with triple-negative breast cancer had no statistically significant improvement in disease-free survival when they received adjuvant treatment with chemotherapy plus 1 year of bevacizumab.

Brian Leyland-Jones, MBBS, PhD, discusses results from the phase III HERA trial that compared 2 years of adjuvant trastuzumab to the standard 1 year in HER2-postive early-stage breast cancer.

Eribulin mesylate failed to show a statistically significant survival benefit compared with capecitabine in women with previously treated metastatic breast cancer.