VIDEO: Metastatic breast cancer converting to a 'chronic disease' with new treatments

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The treatment landscape, especially for hormone positive breast cancer, has undergone dramatic change in the recent years. So in addition to our backbone of aromatase inhibitor treatments and tamoxifen, we are converting metastatic breast cancer into a chronic disease by addressing resistance mechanisms.

So the use of CDK inhibitors in advanced breast cancer has significantly prolonged the life of many. And using these inhibitors now in the early, high risk setting promises to reduce the burden of metastatic hormone positive breast cancer in the future.

The introduction of therapies with specific biomarker targets, like ESR1 and PIK3CA mutations have also expanded the use of oral medications, sparing patients the use of toxic chemotherapy. So this has made the delivery of medicine personalized, and much more effective. We now rely on molecular assays and multi-gene panels to tailor treatments to our patients.

Again, specifically in the hormone positive breast cancer population, we can really spare so many patients from chemotherapy in the early setting. And using these panels, we can even predict their prognosis right from the time of diagnosis. In the advanced breast cancer setting, by using these assays, we have essentially transformed the delivery of care to these patient populations.