SAN ANTONIO – In a roundtable at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Dr. Jame Abraham, Dr. Linda Bosserman, and Dr. Debra Patt discussed their top selections from the meeting’s presentations.
Among the topics were the promising findings in a small study involving the novel immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab in advanced triple-negative breast cancer; the SOFT trial, which looked at ovarian suppression with either tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor in premenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive disease; and the negative findings on the use of erythropoietin in patients with metastatic breast cancer.
The editors also highlighted findings showing no difference in disease-free survival between node-negative patients receiving six cycles of 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide and those receiving four cycles of Adriamycin and cyclophosphamide; and data from the Women’s Intervention Nutrition Study, which showed that lifestyle and dietary changes can have a notable impact on outcomes in women with early-stage, treated breast cancer.
Management of therapy side effects, fertility concerns in younger patients, patient quality of life, and the cost effectiveness of treatment were a subtext to the editors’ discussions of the clinical findings, as they highlighted the importance of looking closely at the risk-benefit relationship in delivering quality, affordable, personalized care to patients with breast cancer.
Dr. Abraham is director of the breast medical oncology at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Bosserman is clinical assistant professor at City of Hope Cancer Center, Duarte, Calif. Dr. Patt is a partner at Texas Oncology, Austin, and director of health care informatics at McKesson Specialty Health.