Articles related to BREAST CANCER

The prospective, open-label, single-arm, phase 2 TUXEDO-1 trial enrolled patients with HER2-positive breast cancer and newly diagnosed untreated brain metastases or brain metastases progressing after previous local therapy. Patients received trastuzumab deruxtecan intravenously at the standard dose of 5.4 mg per kg bodyweight once every 3 weeks. Fifteen patients received at least one dose of study drug. Two patients (13.3%) had a complete intracranial response, nine (60%) had a partial intracranial response and three (20%) had stable disease as the best intracranial response. There were no new safety signals.

The Stockholm Tamoxifen (STO-3) trial conducted from 1976 to 1990 included 462 postmenopausal patients with lymph node-negative breast cancer. This secondary analysis of trial data (including a 2014 tumor tissue assessment with immunohistochemistry and Agilent microarrays) looked for long-term survival benefit with tamoxifen. The authors conclude that patients with luminal A tumor subtype appeared to have a long-term (i.e., 15-year) benefit from tamoxifen therapy, and patients with luminal B subtype appeared to have an early benefit (i.e., 5 years) from therapy, when the risk of distant metastatic disease was high.

Guideline-directed binary distinctions between HER2-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer have guided physicians’ treatment decisions for quite some time, but new research suggests that patients with HER2-2+, ISH-negative breast cancer present a clinical picture closer to that of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, offering up a new nomenclature, HER2-low.

This six-chapter video series covers patient selection for neoadjuvant systemic treatment, adjuvant systemic treatment, neoadjuvant systemic treatment, post-neoadjuvant adjuvant treatment, survivorship and surveillance, and future directions.

The IMpassion050 study was the first to assess the question: Can addition of atezolizumab to neoadjuvant standard of care (pertuzumab and trastuzumab [PH], and chemotherapy) improve outcomes in high-risk, HER2–positive early breast cancer? The results are a click away.

Up to half of all patients with metastatic HER2+ breast cancer will eventually acquire brain metastases, which are associated with reduced overall survival and decreased quality of life. This comprehensive review examines current recommendations in 1st, 2nd, and later line therapies, discusses the status of novel agents, and provides recommendations to standardize care.