HER2+ Breast Cancer

Gunter von Minckwitz, MD, discusses less-than-encouraging results and what next steps lie ahead in neoadjuvant therapy regimens for HER2-positive breast cancer.

Pat Whitworth, MD, medical oncologist at the Nashville Breast Center, discusses the prospective neo-adjuvant NBRST study, which looked at BluePrint functional subtyping versus conventional immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in breast tumors.

Prophylactic administration of standard heart failure medications helped preserve left ventricular ejection fraction in patients treated with trastuzumab for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Clifford Hudis, MD, discusses the evolving adjuvant therapy options in HER2-positive breast cancer.

Not all HER2 genes are capable of causing cancer growth or spread, and thus may also fail to predict response to anticancer drugs that target the gene.

Mohammad Jahanzeb, MD, discusses emerging strategies in the adjuvant treatment of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

The primary analysis of the phase III CALGB 40601 trial found that pathologic complete response to dual HER2 blockade was not statistically higher than anti-HER2 monotherapy. However, there was a high level of intertumoral heterogeneity, and patients with the HER2-enriched subtype had a high pCR with both single and dual anti-HER2 therapy.

Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, chief, Breast Cancer Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, professor of medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, takes a deeper look at neoadjuvant treatment for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

Hans-Christian Kolberg, MD, discusses updated results from a study that showed that neoadjuvant chemotherapy with docetaxel, carboplatin, and weekly trastuzumab demonstrated significant overall survival and disease-free survival activity in patients with HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer.

Kimberly L. Blackwell, MD, discusses the potential for some emerging therapies, as well as the benefits of current treatments for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

Patients with hormone receptor (HR)–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer who have a favorable gene-expression profile may be able to avert chemotherapy and receive endocrine treatment alone.

Mohammad Jahanzeb, MD, discusses therapeutic agents that may fit into the adjuvant setting treatment paradigm for HER2-positive breast cancer, the increasing importance of genomic testing, and individualized treatments as multiple agents emerge.

Arlene Chan, MD, director, Mount Hospital at Perth, discusses the ExteNET trial, which looked at neratinib as extended adjuvant therapy in patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer.

Hope Rugo, MD, discusses how to balance the benefits and risks of neratinib, as well as unanswered questions regarding ExteNET, in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

Dennis J. Slamon, MD, PhD, discusses the impact of the ADAPT and BOLERO trials and how the increased focus on neoadjuvant therapy with trastuzumab and T-DM1 could transform the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer.

Douglas Yee, MD, professor of medicine and pharmacology, Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, Department of Medicine, medical oncologist, University of Minnesota, discusses the results of the phase II ADAPT trial, which examined T-DM1 in patients with HER2-positive, HR-positive early-stage breast cancer.

Treatment with the second-generation HER2/EGFR-targeted TKI neratinib resulted in a partial response and dramatic improvement in functional status for a patient with HER2-mutated breast cancer.

Fred C. Kass, MD, oncology/hematology, internal medicine, Cancer Center of Santa Barbara, discusses challenges associated with optimal treatment sequencing for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

Patients with HER2-positive breast cancer that was ≤2 cm experienced a substantial improvement in disease-free and overall survival when treated with adjuvant trastuzumab.

Outcomes for patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer are improving as a result of blockade strategies, and more novel agents are in the pipeline.

Patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who harbor a PIK3CA mutation are less likely to benefit from the combination of trastuzumab plus lapatinib.

Mohammad Jahanzeb, MD, professor of Clinical Medicine, Hematology Oncology, University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine, discusses potential mechanisms for overcoming HER2 resistance in breast cancer.

Anthony D. Elias, MD, professor, Division of Medical Oncology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, discusses using androgen receptor inhibitors as a potential treatment of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

Anees B. Chagpar, MD, MA, MPH, MBA, FRCS(C), FACS, associate professor of surgery (oncology), director, The Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven, assistant director, Global Oncology, Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses sequencing therapies for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

The European Commission has approved the combination of pertuzumab, trastuzumab, and chemotherapy as a neoadjuvant therapy for adult patients with HER2-positive, locally advanced, inflammatory, or early stage breast cancer who are at high risk of recurrence.