Breaking News from SABCS 2011, December 6-10

BCRF grantees present on new treatment options for metastatic breast cancers

Based on earlier studies funded in part by BCRF, researchers have designed and developed clinical trials of existing therapies to see if various combinations of them would produce improved results for patients with metastatic hormone receptor positive (HR+) and HER2+ breast cancers. At the 34th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, results from two large-scale, international clinical trials were announced and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

BOLERO-II, which is a phase III randomized clinical trial of postmenopausal women from 195 sites worldwide, examined the efficacy of combining exemestane (an aromatase inhibitor used to treat HR+ breast cancer) with everolimus (Affinitor^®), which is a new kind of medicine that inhibits an intracellular signal called "mTOR," thought to be important in most HR+ breast cancers. Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD (University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center), a member of BCRF's Executive Board of Scientific Advisors, presented findings that suggested the addition of everolimus to exemestane markedly improved the clinical benefits (meaning how long the patients' tumors responded) for these women with metastatic HR+ breast cancer. Because this drug is already FDA-approved for other diseases and possibly available, this provides an additional clinical option for these women. Read more...

Results from CLEOPATRA, a phase III international trial, were also reported. This trial looked at whether combining trastuzumab and pertuzumab, both anti-HER2 antibodies that work differently from each other, yielded greater benefits to patients. In a population of 808 patients with metastatic HER2+ breast cancer, José Baselga, MD, PhD (Massachusetts General Hospital) reported that women who received the combinatorial therapy experienced on average 18.5 months of progression-free survival, as compared with 12.4 months to those who received only one anti-HER2 drug. He also reported an improvement in the duration of overall survival. These findings, if they persist, are likely to change clinical practice for patients with advanced HER2+ breast cancer if and when this drug receives FDA approval. Read more...

Read the Report from the 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium...