HER2-Positive Breast Cancer

Experts provide insights on clinical decision-making in the setting of patient with HER2+ breast cancer.

Key opinion leaders explore the appropriateness of prophylactic therapy for brain metastases and share their thoughts on best practices.

An expert panel of breast oncologists discusses factors they consider when deciding whether to screen a patient with HER2+ breast cancer for brain metastases.

Adam Brufsky, MD, PhD, presents the case of a 37-year-old woman with HER2+/HR- metastatic breast cancer and polls the audience about screening for brain metastases.

Anti-HER2 blockade without chemotherapy in the treatment of HER2-positive early breast cancer may be possible in patients with certain RNA expression signatures.

The KATHERINE trial found a clinical benefit without increasing the risk of CNS recurrence for patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer treated with T-DM1.

Even though the trastuzumab/radiotherapy failed to meet the trial-specified reduction threshold, a modest, statistically nonsignificant reduction in ipsilateral breast cancer rates were observed.

Experts discusses the treatment of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer in a virtual CancerNetwork® Around the Practice presentation,“Relapsed/Refractory HER2+ Metastatic Breast Cancer,” held January 21, 2021, and moderated by Adam M. Brufsky, MD, PhD.

In a retrospective review published in NPJ Breast Cancer, data indicate that omitting radiation therapy results in decreased overall survival in patients with stage I HER2-positive breast cancer.

Pyrotinib plus capecitabine to treat patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer saw a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival.

Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, FACP, of the University of California, Los Angeles, discussed a number of emerging novel therapies with the potential to treat patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer in the third-line setting.

At the Miami Breast Cancer Conference, Debu Tripathy, MD, reviewed adaptive therapy for the adjuvant treatment of patients with HER2-positive, early-stage breast cancer.

The combination of liposomal doxorubicin, docetaxel, and trastuzumab with metformin produced positive activity and an acceptable safety profile as neoadjuvant treatment for HER2-positive breast cancer.

The PHERGain II trial will investigate the treatment of patients with early HER2-positive breast cancer using a chemotherapy-free treatment approach of trastuzumab plus pertuzumab.

Recommendations for managing 2 patient cases specific to HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer and optimizing therapy for specific patient populations within the HER2-positive space based on emerging treatments and changes to standards of care.

Results from the phase 3 SOPHIA trial demonstrated that margetuximab plus chemotherapy had an acceptable safety profile which was comparable to that observed with trastuzumab plus chemotherapy.

The randomized, open-label, phase 3 FeDeriCa trial tested the safety profile of pertuzumab and trastuzumab plus hyaluronidase-zzxf in 500 patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.

Register for CancerNetwork's live, interactive event featuring leaders in oncology reviewing and discussing patient cases in breast cancer.

ARX788 received a nod from the FDA early in 2021 based on promising preclinical and phase 1 trial data demonstrating its efficacy in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer following progression on other agents.

The FDA approved margetuximab-cmkb (Margenza) in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who have received 2 or more prior anti-HER2 regimens, at least 1 of which was for metastatic disease.

Impressive signals of efficacy, durable responses, overall survival rates, and a tolerable safety profile were all found for fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki to treat patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

The combination use of neoadjuvant paclitaxel, trastuzumab, and pertuzumab followed by adjuvant trastuzumab for patients with pathologic complete response or followed by adjuvant dose-dense anthracycline/cyclophosphamide plus T-DM1 for patients with residual disease offered the highest health benefits and lowest costs.

Investigators suggested that guidelines which recommend initiating screening mammography at age 50 may be putting Black women at a disadvantage, and screening should thus begin by age 40.

The DESTINY-Breast05 trial will investigate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu) versus ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) as adjuvant therapy in patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer who have a high risk of disease recurrence and residual invasive disease in the breast or axillary lymph nodes after receiving neoadjuvant therapy.

A study which evaluated lapatinib (Tykerb) and trastuzumab (Herceptin) given prior to surgery in patients with early HER2-positive breast cancer revealed that women who had a pathological complete response survived longer without the cancer returning than those who did not.

The breast cancer expert discussed the changes he has made in treating this patient population as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The addition of tucatinib to trastuzumab and capecitabine in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer with and without brain metastases resulted in statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in progression-free and overall survival.

The study is designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability, pharmacodynamics, and preliminary efficacy of ACE1702 in patients with advanced or metastatic HER2-expressing solid tumors.

The breast cancer expert discussed research recently published in Cancer Medicine, which suggested that delays in adjuvant chemotherapy are associated with worse survival in this patient population.

Researchers indicated that these findings suggest providers should avoid delays and begin chemotherapy no later than 90 days after surgery, regardless of the patient’s breast cancer subtype or age.