San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS)

Women with advanced endocrine-resistant breast cancer who had PIK3CA mutations in their circulating tumor DNA had an almost 4-month progression-free survival improvement when adding the PIK3CA inhibitor buparlisib to fulvestrant.

The addition of carboplatin to a neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen resulted in improvements in disease-free survival for women with triple-negative breast cancer.

Among local treatment options for early breast cancer patients, mastectomy plus reconstruction has the highest rate of complications and is highest in cost.

The addition of denosumab to adjuvant hormonal therapy in postmenopausal breast cancer patients improves disease-free survival compared with placebo.

Patients with breast cancer who still had residual disease after undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery had improved survival outcomes with the addition of adjuvant capecitabine to standard treatment.

Premenopausal women with luminal A breast tumors received no benefit from treatment with adjuvant chemotherapy.

Ahead of SABCS we discuss the biology and treatment of ductal carcinoma in situ, as well as research into prognostic indicators that could help guide treatment decisions.

Accelerated partial breast irradiation was shown to be just as effective and safe as whole breast irradiation in early-stage breast cancer patients.

Tamoxifen given to women at high risk for breast cancer lowered the rate of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer diagnosis in the IBIS-I trial.

Fulvestrant improved overall survival compared with anastrozole, among women with treatment-naive, advanced, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.

Data from the Women’s Intervention Nutrition Study found a reduction in dietary fat intake resulted in lower death rates in ER- and PR-negative breast cancer.

The PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab showed activity and had an acceptable safety profile in heavily pretreated metastatic triple-negative breast cancer patients.

Results of a phase II study of a PI3K inhibitor in ER-positive breast cancer showed a trend toward improved progression-free survival.

A study of triple-negative breast cancer patients found that adding bevacizumab to chemo resulted in higher pCR rates in those with basal-like disease.

Early-stage premenopausal ER-positive breast cancer patients who have received chemotherapy benefited from ovarian suppression with tamoxifen or exemestane.

The use of adjuvant capecitabine in elderly patients with moderate- to high-risk early breast cancer resulted in no improvement in disease-free survival.

The level of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (Str-TILs) may influence which treatment is the most effective in women with HER2-positive breast cancer.

In this preview of the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, we take a look at some of the studies to watch for at this year's event.

Meetings like SABCS that bring together scientists, medical professionals, and patients are essential to achieving improved outcomes in the clinic. I am grateful to all who organize and attend this event and humbled to participate.

In this interview we discuss the role of radiotherapy in treating women aged 65 and older with hormone-positive breast cancer with Dr. Ian Kunkler, professor of clinical oncology at the Edinburgh Cancer Research Center.

In a study presented at SABCS, breast cancer patients experiencing moderate joint pain from aromatase inhibitor-therapy had clinically meaningful improvements in pain and stiffness when they participated in an exercise program.

The addition of carboplatin chemotherapy or bevacizumab to the standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy boosted the number of women with triple-negative breast cancer who had no residual cancer at the time of surgery.

The addition of bevacizumab to the combination of chemotherapy and trastuzumab as adjuvant therapy did not influence invasive disease-free survival according to a new study result presented at SABCS.

Major studies conducted to date looking at mammography screening and mortality have estimated that the number of women needed to be screened in order to prevent one breast cancer death ranged from 111 to 2,000, an almost 20-fold difference; however, the benefits of mammography may be more consistent than previously thought, according to a re-examination of these studies presented at the SABCS.

The aromatase inhibitor anastrozole reduced the risk for breast cancer by 53% among postmenopausal women at high-risk for the disease, according to trial results presented at SABCS.

Adding the drug dasatinib to standard antihormone therapy letrozole doubled the median progression-free survival of patients with hormone-receptor positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, according to the results of a small phase II study.

Major studies looking at breast cancer screening with mammography may have more consistent findings than previously thought.

The number of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes detected in early-stage HER2-positive tumors may predict a better response to trastuzumab and chemotherapy, according to a study presented at SABCS.