Articles related to BREAST CANCER

Clinical Advances in Hematology & Oncology presents a review of selected presentations from the 2020 SABCS Virtual Symposium, which took place in December 2020. Expert commentary is provided by Joyce A. O’Shaughnessy, MD of Baylor University Medical Center and the Director of the Breast Cancer Research Program, Texas Oncology, US Oncology, in Dallas.

According to new research from investigators with the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, a microbe found in the colon and commonly associated with the development of colitis and colon cancer may also play a role in the development of some breast cancers.

This review and commentary from the ESMO Virtual Congress 2020 features a look at the following trials: ASCENT (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy), IMpassion130 (atezolizumab + nab-paclitaxel), IMpassion131 (first-line paclitaxel +/– atezolizumab), IPATunity130 (ipatasertib + paclitaxel), SEASTAR (rucaparib + sacituzumab govitecan), FLIPPER (fulvestrant/palbociclib), SOLAR-1 (alpelisib + fulvestrant), and FURVA (vandetanib + fulvestrant).

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) published a guideline update about the selection of optimal adjuvant chemotherapy regimens and targeted therapy for early breast cancer, namely trastuzumab emtansine. In a second recommendation, the ASCO guideline addressed the use of biosimilar forms of trastuzumab—five of which have been approved by the FDA.

Another win for Merck and Keytruda, as the FDA granted accelerated approval to pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with locally recurrent unresectable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) whose tumors express PD-L1 based on PFS. The FDA also approved a companion diagnostic, PD-L1 IHC 22C3 pharmDx.

Olaparib, a PARP inhibitor, is approved for the treatment of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)–negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC) in germline (g)BRCA1/2 mutation carriers. Find out whether the results from this latest report will emphasize the value of molecular characterization (homologous recombination (HR)–related genes other than BRCA1/2) for treatment decisions in MBC.