SABCS recap: Novel regimens, treatment de-escalation and ‘catastrophic’ financial burdens
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This year’s San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium featured several high-impact abstracts.
Findings of potentially practice-changing studies highlighted the benefit of new therapeutic regimens and the potential to de-escalate treatment for certain patients.
Healio presents this overview of some of the important SABCS research that may be relevant to your practice.
1. Treatment de-escalation may be possible for patients with breast cancer who respond well to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The findings help provide clarity to an active debate about optimal postsurgical treatment for patients who present with axillary node involvement, receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy and are found to be pathologically node negative at surgery, researcher Eleftherios “Terry” Mamounas, MD, MPH, told Healio. Read more.
2. The addition of tucatinib (Tukysa, Seagen) to ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla, Genentech) significantly improved PFS among patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, according to results of the HER2CLIMB02 study. Healio spoke with researcher Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, FACP, about the findings, plus read expert perspective from Adam M. Brufsky, MD, PhD. Read more.
3. The addition of pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) to chemotherapy improved pathologic complete response rate and reduced residual cancer burden among those with early-stage, high-risk ER-positive, HER2-negative disease. Read more.
4. Younger postmenopausal women who underwent treatment without radiotherapy for early-stage hormone receptor-positive breast cancer experienced low 5-year recurrence rates. Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, FASCO, FASTRO, spoke with Healio about the findings and their implications. Read more.
5. The addition of atezolizumab (Tecentriq, Genentech) to adjuvant chemotherapy “is very unlikely” to improve DFS for women with stage II or stage III triple-negative breast cancer. Laura Huppert, MD, offers reaction and perspective. Read more.
6. Pembrolizumab plus olaparib (Lynparza, AstraZeneca) did not improve outcomes among patients with locally recurrent inoperable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer compared with pembrolizumab-chemotherapy. However, patients with BRCA mutations did achieve longer PFS and OS with the combination. Debu Tripathy, MD, puts the findings in perspective. Read more.
7. Omission of completion axillary lymph node dissection did not increase recurrence among patients with clinically node-negative breast cancer who had positive sentinel lymph node biopsy. Richard J. Bleicher, MD, FACS, puts the findings in context. Read more.
8. One in five young BRCA carriers became pregnant within 10 years of breast cancer diagnosis, and pregnancy did not compromise fetal outcomes or maternal prognosis. The findings “are of paramount importance” to guide oncofertility counseling for BRCA carriers, Matteo Lambertini, MD, PhD, told Healio. Read more.
9. Patients undergoing treatment for active breast cancer reported experiencing significant financial burden from cancer care. The findings indicate a need for patient-centered solutions to lessen potentially “catastrophic” financial burdens and optimize patient outcomes, Fumiko Chino, MD, told Healio. Read more.
10. The addition of ribociclib (Kisqali, Novartis) to endocrine therapy conferred durable benefit to patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer. Researcher Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, FACP, spoke with Healio about the importance of the findings. Read more.
For comprehensive coverage — including researcher interviews, expert perspective and videos — visit our San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium collection on Healio.
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