Personalized Medicine

Adjuvant chemotherapy should be recommended for patients with completely resected, isolated local or regional recurrence (ILRR) of breast cancer, and the argument is strongest for women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive tumor recurrences, according to the results of the international Chemotherapy as Adjuvant for Locally Recurrent Breast Cancer (CALOR) trial.

Two studies presented in San Antonio reached conflicting conclusions regarding the value of dose-dense chemotherapy in patients with early breast cancer.

Chemotherapy may not necessarily be the reason that patients with breast cancer often complain of “fuzzy thinking” and difficulty solving problems, according to research showing that cognitive changes are present in some patients at baseline, and may be related to fatigue and anxiety.

Patients classified as low risk by the EndoPredict panel had a significantly lower rate of distant metastasis after 5 and 10 years of follow-up compared with patients who did not meet the test’s criteria for low risk, according to Peter Dubsky, MD, of the Breast Health Center, Associate Professor of Sur­gery, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.

For the treatment of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive early breast cancer, 10 years of treatment with tamoxifen yields better outcomes than 5 years of treatment, according to an analysis from the international ATLAS study that was presented at the 2012 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

The honor of delivering the William I. McGuire Memorial Lecture at this year’s meeting went to Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, FACP, Professor of Breast Medical Oncology and Nellie B. Connally Chair in Breast Cancer at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston.

San Antonio, TX—Studies have suggested that musculoskeletal toxicity associated with aromatase inhibitor therapy can lead to noncompliance in up to 33% of women with breast cancer. A new, large cohort study at a single regional cancer center showed that the rate of musculoskeletal toxicity in women with early breast cancer who were treated with endocrine therapy was 64%.

San Antonio, TX—The uptake of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs for risk reduction of breast cancer is still poor, as was confirmed by a study using the electronic health records (EHRs) from Geisinger Health System in Danville, PA.

San Antonio, TX—Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) was strongly associated with BRCA1 status, but not with BRCA2 status, in a large study of medically insured women. The study showed that the number of patients with BRCA mutations with a TNBC profile is statistically significant.

San Antonio, TX—A multigene score called EndoPredict can help to identify women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer who are likely to develop metastatic disease in the long-term.