PER® Miami Breast Cancer Conference

Immunotherapy treatment for early-stage triple-negative breast cancer is enjoying a boom period, though there are still unanswered questions, particularly around the optimal chemotherapy backbone and patient selection.

Getting a start in clinical research can appear daunting, said Anees Chagpar, MD, MBA, MPH, FACS, FRCS(C). Fortunately, all it really takes is a question and a bit of drive.

Pat W. Whitworth, MD, explains how data from past studies are informing the use of circulating tumor DNA and talks about the potential of these assays to guide treatment decisions in patients with breast cancer.

Charles L. Loprinzi, MD, discusses some of the most common treatment-related toxicities in breast cancer and provided insight into various current and investigational approaches available to patients.

Patients with newly diagnosed metastatic triple-negative breast cancer should undergo PD-L1 expression testing on tumors to determine whether they are candidates for frontline chemoimmunotherapy.

Treatment with eribulin elicited an estimated 2-year overall survival rate of 53.6% for patients with metastatic breast cancer previously treated with atezolizumab or sacituzumab govitecan, according to real-world findings.

Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, discusses utilizing CDK4/6 inhibitors in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.

Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, discusses the efficacy of trastuzumab deruxtecan in the second-line setting and its potential to move into the first-line treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer.

The 39th Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference® makes its return to the Fontainebleau Miami Beach in Florida with a twist on both the agenda and the setting.

Intravenous cetirizine showed comparable efficacy to IV diphenhydramine for the prevention of infusion reactions in patients with cancer who are undergoing treatment with an anti-CD20 antibody or paclitaxel.

There are a number of strategies to reduce margin positivity, particularly after partial mastectomy, but the relative effectiveness of each varies, as do the data that support their use.

Olaparib and talazoparib failed to demonstrate statistically significant improvements in overall survival compared with chemotherapy in pretreated patients with BRCA1/2-mutant metastatic HER2-negative breast cancer. However, the results are unlikely to affect the drugs’ utility in practice, given that both agents continue to show favorable tolerability and disease control

One year into the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed for some reflection on the different evolutions that the oncology community went through in response to the many challenges posed by the virus.

Stimuli for biologic aging include ionizing radiation, ultraviolet light, diet, exercise, oxidative stresses, and perhaps, worst of all, smoking. All of these can trigger intracellular processes, including DNA methylation, or epigenetic change, telomere shortening and damage, DNA damage, and mitochondrial dysfunction.

A wave of approvals and a rapidly evolving treatment landscape could make the next decade a watershed period in breast cancer care.

Even in 2021, disparities in outcomes of younger women with breast cancer vs their older counterparts remain; addressing behavioral issues and psychological concerns in this population could vastly improve their quality of life, treatment adherence, and ultimately, survival.

Off Our Chests: A Candid Tour Through the World of Cancer is a memoir that dives into Liza Marshall’s breast cancer journey.

Although phase 3 data suggest that the addition of checkpoint inhibitors to neoadjuvant chemotherapy could improve pathologic complete response rates for patients with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer, immature data and the risk of long-term toxicity indicate that the therapy is not ready for primetime

Kevin Kalinsky, MD, MS, discusses the potential of antibody-drug conjugates across breast cancer subtypes.

Hope S. Rugo, MD, discusses the benefit of margetuximab-cmkb in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who have received prior HER2-targeted therapies.

The introduction of new therapies for patients with recurrent HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer has resulted in a crowded landscape for third-line treatments and beyond, raising questions about how best to sequence a wealth of options.

Targeted agents and chemotherapy regimens are at the crux of systemic research efforts focused on improving outcomes for patients with breast cancer who have brain metastases and/or leptomeningeal disease.

Debu Tripathy, MD, discusses some of the unanswered clinical questions that remain for patients with HER2-positive disease and some strategies for personalizing treatment in the neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings.

Debu Tripathy, MD, discusses efforts being made to minimize the risk of disease recurrence in patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer.

Olufunmilayo Falusi Olopade, MD, FACP, discusses racial disparities in breast cancer outcomes.

With the identification of numerous molecular abnormalities that can affect treatment and the course of disease in patients with breast cancer, it’s become understood that genetic profiling can define clinical trial eligibility, the presence or absence of aberrations help to drive treatment decisions, and variants can be predictive for response or resistance.

Although there is evidence to suggest that surgery with or without radiation therapy can be utilized in some patients with stage IV breast cancer who have experienced locoregional progression or symptoms to some success with regard to locoregional disease control, most patients will not achieve a survival benefit.

CDK4/6 inhibitors plus aromatase inhibitors have shown benefit as frontline treatment for patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, but more data are needed to determine their role as adjuvant therapy before they are adopted into standard practice for patients with early-stage disease.