Hot Topics in Breast Cancer

In this video, Deborah L. Toppmeyer, MD, director of the Stacy Goldstein Breast Cancer Center at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, discusses:

• how breast cancer treatment strategies – particularly in early-onset breast cancer – needed to change “literally overnight” at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic;
• the impact of the complete shutdown of breast cancer screening during COVID-19 pandemic;
• the importance of discussing COVID-19 vaccination and its boosters, as well as influenza vaccination, with breast cancer patients;
• how “we have gotten a bit complacent” compared with the beginning of the pandemic, and how COVID-19 “still has a significant burden on our hospitals, our health care providers,” and patients who have developed long COVID-19;
• why education and “listening to patients’ concerns” on COVID-19 vaccines are essential to address vaccine hesitancy; and
• areas where future research on COVID-19 and breast cancer should focus, like the long-term impact of delayed screening during the COVID-19 pandemic.