San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium

An attempt to strengthen neoadjuvant treatment of patients with locally advanced HR-positive and HER2-positive breast cancer by adding estrogen deprivation therapy to a standard regimen failed to significantly improve response rates but did illustrate the extensive toxicity of the chemotherapy agents used in this setting.

A biomarker analysis of participants in a phase II breast cancer trial demonstrated potential for identifying tumor markers to predict susceptibility to specific therapies.

The HER2-enriched subtype of HER2-positive breast cancer is a strong predictor of sensitivity to dual HER2 blockade without the use of chemotherapy.

Adjuvant ibandronate (Boniva) added to hormone therapy did not provide a clinical benefit to postmenopausal patients with HR-positive, early-stage breast cancer, according to findings from the phase III TEAM IIB trial.

A neoadjuvant regimen combining the CDK4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib with anastrozole induced a response rate of 54.7% in patients with HR+/HER2-negative early-stage breast cancer, according to findings from the phase II neoMONARCH trial.

The addition of an aromatase inhibitor (AI) to pertuzumab and trastuzumab improved progression-free survival by 3.09 months, when compared with trastuzumab plus an AI.

Median progression-free survival was improved by 2.1 months with the addition of the pan-PI3K inhibitor buparlisib to fulvestrant for women with HR-positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who received a prior aromatase inhibitor and progressed on or after an mTOR inhibitor.

Geoffrey Lindeman, MD, joint head, Stem Cells and Cancer Division at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, discusses a study exploring RANK ligand as a target for breast cancer prevention in patients who harbor the BRCA1 mutation.

Noah S. Kornblum, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and attending physician of medicine, Montefiore-Einstein Center for Cancer Care, discusses the phase II PrECOG 0102 trial, which explored the addition of everolimus (Afinitor) to fulvestrant (Faslodex) as a treatment for patients with metastatic hormone receptor (HR)–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

Extending letrozole therapy in women with early-stage, HR-positive breast cancer who completed 5 years of prior hormone therapy did not yield a statistically significant improvement in either disease-free or overall survival, but prolonged use of the aromatase inhibitor may be beneficial in some subgroups of women with a higher risk of recurrence.

The genomic landscape of recurrent metastatic estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer differed significantly from the mutational profile of primary disease in a study that sheds light on acquired resistance mechanisms to anticancer therapies.

Higher levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes were associated with improvements in overall survival for patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer treated with docetaxel, trastuzumab, and pertuzumab in the phase III CLEOPATRA trial.

Adding the PARP inhibitor veliparib to carboplatin/paclitaxel chemotherapy induced a response rate of 77.8% in patients with advanced BRCA-positive breast cancer.

The addition of everolimus (Afinitor) to fulvestrant (Faslodex) significantly improved progression-free survival rates in postmenopausal patients with metastatic hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer who are resistant to aromatase inhibitor therapy.

Benjamin D. Smith, MD, associate professor and research director of breast radiation oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, discusses complications with mastectomy versus lumpectomy for early breast cancer.

Ingrid A. Mayer, MD, co-leader and Clinical Director, Breast Cancer Research Program Chair, Data and Safety Monitoring Committee, Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology), medical oncologist, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, discusses the use of targeted therapies in estrogen-receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer.

Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, attending physician, Medical Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses RAD1901, a selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) for potential use in ER-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Debu Tripathy, MD, professor of Medicine, chair, Department of Breast Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses molecular predictors of outcome for patients with ER-positive breast cancer.

Kimberly L. Blackwell, MD, professor of Medicine, assistant professor of Radiation Oncology, Duke Cancer Institute, discusses the mechanism of action for margetuximab (MGAH22-01) and discusses its potential as a treatment of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

Peter Beitsch, MD, President at The American Society of Breast Surgeons, Dallas Surgical Group, discusses the impact of pertuzumab on patients with luminal subtype breast cancer.

Palbociclib enhances cell cycle control when added to anastrazole in the neoadjuvant setting in women with ER-positive primary breast cancer.

The PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab had an overall response rate of 12% in PD-L1–positive patients with ER-positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.

The oral pan-HER TKI neratinib continued to show similar rates of disease-free survival for patients with HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer at a 3-year analysis of the phase III ExteNET trial.

Patricia Ganz, MD, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses a study comparing anastrozole versus tamoxifen in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) breast cancer.

Breast cancer recurrence was similar whether postmenopausal women with ductal carcinoma in situ received anastrozole or tamoxifen for 5 years following local excision in the IBIS-II trial.

Patient reports of their experiences with taking either tamoxifen or anastrozole can help clinicians decide which one to recommend to individual women, new research has found.

Joanne Blum, MD, PhD, oncologist with Texas Oncology and a member of the Breast Cancer Committee for The US Oncology Network, discuses the EMBRACA trial.

T-DM1 (ado-trastuzumab emtansine; Kadcyla) reduced the risk of death by 32% and improved median overall surviva by almost 7 months compared with physician's choice of therapy in heavily pretreated patients with HER2-positive advanced breast cancer.