Dr. Aft on Disseminating Tumor Cells and Prognosis
Rebecca L. Aft, MD, PhD, discusses the identification of patients with breast cancer at high risk of recurrent disease development by detection of HER2-positive disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow of patients with HER2-negative tumors.
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 identification of patients with breast cancer at high risk of recurrent disease development by detection of HER2-positive disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow of patients with HER2-negative tumors.
The study presented at the 2013 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Meeting found that 20% of patients with HER2-negative tumors will have HER2-positive disseminating tumor cells. These patients, Aft notes, have a worse prognosis than patients with HER2-positive tumors and HER2-positive disseminating tumor cells who are treated with trastuzumab and other patients with HER2-negative tumor cells in their bone marrow.
The findings from this study are hypothesis-generating, Aft says, as it could be possible to treat patients with HER2-negative tumors with a high risk of recurrence due to HER2-positive disseminating tumor cells with targeted therapies.
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