Dr. Esserman on Screening Patients With Higher-Risk DCIS

Laura Esserman, MD, MBA, Professor, University of California, San Francisco, discusses screening patients with higher-risk DCIS.

Chloroquine is an interesting agent, Esserman says, that may have the biologic properties to help a tumor self-destruct. A potentially-beneficial strategy may be to administer the drug for one to two weeks, then operating to determine if a patient is hitting the target or to identify a biomarker. As no drug exists that prevents ER-negative or hormone-negative disease, there is no reason not to test in this way, Esserman says.

In the case of agents like zoledronate, Esserman believes that it is a great idea to conduct a window trial to selectively screen patients with higher-risk DCIS and look for an impact.