Breast Cancer

According to a new systematic review of the risks and benefits of breast cancer screening, regular mammography is associated with a 19% reduction in breast cancer mortality, but it is also associated with a 61% cumulative risk of a false-positive result, and approximately 19% of the cases are, in fact, considered overdiagnoses (Pace LE, Keating NL. JAMA. 2014;311:1327-1335).
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The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has issued new guidelines for the use of sentinel node biopsy (SNB) in patients with early-stage breast cancer (Lyman GH, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2014;32:1365-1383. The newer version expands the use of SNB to a larger group of patients, based on evidence from 9 randomized trials and 13 cohort studies conducted since 2005, when the first SNB guidelines were published.
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Women who carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation had an 80% reduction in risk for ovarian, fallopian tube, or breast cancer if they underwent preventive oophorectomy, according to a large prospective study, and a 77% reduction in all-cause mortality (Finch AP, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2014 February 24 [Epub ahead of print]).
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San Antonio, TX—Veliparib plus carboplatin was identified as a worthy combination to move forward in trials of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC; ie, estrogen receptor–negative, progesterone receptor–negative, HER2-negative), a subtype of breast cancer with a very poor prognosis.
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>San Antonio, TX—Patients with HER2-­positive breast cancer harboring a PIK3CA mutation had a significantly lower likelihood of achieving a pathologic complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant anti-HER2 therapy, the results of 2 large clinical trials presented at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) showed.
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San Francisco, CA—Comparative effectiveness research (CER) is an important construct for identifying and summarizing the evidence on the effectiveness, safety, and overall value of alternative strategies in oncology care, said Gary H. Lyman, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine, Duke University and the Duke Cancer Research Institute, Durham, NC, during the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium.
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San Francisco, CA—In a population of patients with metastatic breast cancer and Medicare Part D claims, the mean lifetime cost of treatment was approximately $102,000, according to a study presented at the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium by Hope S. Rugo, MD, Director, Breast Oncology Clinical Trials Program, University of California, San Francisco.
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San Francisco, CA—Management of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) was the focus of 2 studies highlighted at a press conference before the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium.
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San Francisco, CA—At the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium, Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, told oncologists that in the current era of healthcare reform, they will need to think beyond treatment outcomes, toxicities, and personal preferences.
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An aromatase inhibitor has joined tamoxifen (Nolvadex) and the selective estrogen receptor (ER) modulator raloxifene hydrochloride (Evista) as chemoprevention for women who are at an increased risk for breast cancer, according to the recent update of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) practice guideline (Visvanathan K, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2013;31:2942-2962)
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