Breast Cancer Research Results and Study Updates

Some women who receive a false-positive result on a mammogram may not come back for routine breast cancer screening in the future, a new study finds. Better doctor–patient communication about the screening process is needed, several researchers said.

A new study may provide important new insights into breast cancer metastasis. Blood vessels within tumors release a molecule that draws sensory nerves closer to the tumors, the study shows. This close proximity turns on genes in the cancer cells that drive metastasis.

Drs. Ruth Pfeiffer and Peter Kraft of NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics discuss how breast cancer risk assessment tools are created and how people can use them to understand and manage their risk.

Some people with no evidence of cancer in nearby lymph nodes after presurgical chemotherapy can skip radiation to that area without increasing the risk of the cancer returning, a clinical trial found. But some experts caution that more details are needed.

For women in their 70s and older, the risk of overdiagnosis with routine screening mammography is substantial, a new study suggests. The findings highlight the need for conversations between older women and their health care providers about the potential benefits and harms of continuing screening mammography.

Many young women who are diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer want to become pregnant in the future. New research suggests that these women may be able to pause their hormone therapy for up to 2 years as they try to get pregnant without raising the risk of a recurrence in the short term.

For younger women with advanced breast cancer, the combination of ribociclib (Kisqali) and hormone therapy was much better at shrinking metastatic tumors than standard chemotherapy treatments, results from an NCI-funded clinical trial show.

In a large clinical trial, a condensed course of radiation therapy was as effective and safe as a longer standard course for those with higher-risk early-stage breast cancer who had a lumpectomy. This shorter radiation course makes treatment less of a burden for patients.

Adding the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to chemotherapy can help some patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer live longer. In the KEYNOTE-355 trial, overall survival improved among patients whose tumors had high levels of the PD-L1 protein.

People with metastatic breast cancer whose tumors had low levels of HER2 protein lived longer after treatment with trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) than those treated with standard chemotherapy, results of the DESTINY-Breast04 clinical trial show.

NCI researchers have shown that an experimental form of immunotherapy that uses an individual’s own tumor-fighting immune cells could potentially be used to treat people with metastatic breast cancer who have exhausted all other treatment options.

Most breast cancer risk tools were developed with data mainly from White women and don’t work as well for Black women. A new tool that estimates risk for Black women may help identify those who might benefit from earlier screening, enabling earlier diagnosis and treatment.

In people with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, the targeted drug trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) markedly lengthened progression-free survival compared with trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcycla), new study results show.

In a large clinical trial, women with HR-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer treated with ribociclib (Kisqali) and letrozole (Femara) as their initial treatment lived approximately 1 year longer than women treated with letrozole only.

Women with early-stage breast cancer who had one or both breasts surgically removed (a unilateral or bilateral mastectomy) had lower scores on a quality-of-life survey than women who had breast-conserving surgery, a new study has found.

For women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, meeting the national physical activity guidelines may help alleviate cognitive issues, a new study suggests. The benefits may be even greater for patients who were physically active before treatment.

Sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy) now has regular FDA approval for people with locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The update follows last year’s accelerated approval of the drug for people with TNBC.

For some people with ER-positive breast cancer, a new imaging test may help guide decisions about receiving hormone therapy, according to a new study. The test can show whether estrogen receptors in tumors are active and responsive to estrogen.

The test, which helps guide treatment decisions, was not as good at predicting the risk of death from breast cancer for Black patients as for White patients, a new study has found. The findings highlight the need for greater racial diversity in research studies.

The drug abemaciclib (Verzenio) may be a new treatment option for people with the most common type of breast cancer, with new study findings suggesting that it can reduce the risk of the cancer returning.

Fertility preservation for young women with breast cancer doesn’t increase their risk of dying in the ensuing decades, a new study affirmed. Experts said the findings support routinely offering fertility preservation to patients who want it.

Some postmenopausal women with HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer may not benefit from chemotherapy and can safely forgo the treatment, according to clinical trial results presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

A heart-related event, like a heart attack, may make breast cancer grow faster, a new study suggests. In mice, heart attacks accelerated breast tumor growth and human studies linked cardiac events with breast cancer recurrence, researchers reported.

FDA has approved sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy) for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. Under the approval, patients must have already undergone at least two prior treatment regimens.

Women with high-risk breast cancer who engaged in regular exercise before their cancer diagnosis and after treatment were less likely to have their cancer return or to die compared with women who were inactive, a recent study found.

Researchers have developed a “microscaled” approach to analyze the proteins and genetic changes (proteogenomics) of a tumor that uses tissue from a core needle biopsy. The analyses can provide important information that may help guide treatment.

Tucatinib improved survival for women in the HER2CLIMB trial, including some whose cancer had spread to the brain. Trastuzumab deruxtecan improved survival and shrank many tumors in the DESTINY-Breast01 trial, which led to its accelerated approval.

A TAILORx analysis shows women with early-stage breast cancer and high recurrence scores on the Oncotype DX who received chemotherapy with hormone therapy had better long-term outcomes than what would be expected from hormone therapy alone.

Men with breast cancer may be more likely to die of the disease than women, particularly during the first 5 years after diagnosis, a new study suggests. The higher likelihood of death was linked in part to undertreatment and later diagnosis.

In a survey of nearly 600 breast cancer survivors, researchers found that the cost of care factored into the decisions the women made about what type of surgery to get. Many women also reported never discussing costs with their physicians.

FDA has expanded the approved use of the drug ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla), also called T-DM1, to include adjuvant treatment in some women with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer.

Many women diagnosed with ovarian and breast cancer are not undergoing tests for inherited genetic mutations that can provide important information to help guide decisions about treatment and longer-term cancer screening, a new study has found.

FDA has approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of some women with advanced triple-negative breast cancer. This is the first FDA-approved regimen for breast cancer to include immunotherapy.

The build-up of connective tissue around some types of cancer can act as a barrier to immunotherapy. A new study uses a bone marrow transplant drug, plerixafor, to break down this barrier and improve the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in animal models of breast cancer.

A new study in mice shows that disrupting the relationship between breast cancer cells that spread to bone and normal cells surrounding them makes the cancer cells sensitive to treatment.

In women with early-stage breast cancer, two clinical trials have shown that both whole- and partial-breast radiation therapy are effective at preventing the cancer from returning after breast-conserving surgery.

Researchers are testing a topical-gel form of the drug tamoxifen to see if it can help prevent breast cancer as effectively as the oral form of the drug but with fewer side effects.

Findings from a clinical study and a mouse study may shed light on genetic risk factors for developing cancer-related cognitive problems in older breast cancer survivors. The results suggest a gene associated with Alzheimer’s disease may play a role.

Arsenic trioxide and retinoic acid work together to target the master regulator protein Pin1, a new study shows. In cancer cell lines and mice, the drug combination slowed the growth of triple-negative breast cancer tumors.

FDA has expanded the approved uses of ribociclib (Kisqali) for women with advanced breast cancer, including new uses in pre- and postmenopausal women. It’s the first approval under a new FDA program to speed the review of cancer drugs.

Using a liquid biopsy to test for tumor cells circulating in blood, researchers found that, in women with breast cancer, the presence of these cells could identify women at risk of their cancer returning years later.

Findings from the TAILORx clinical trial show chemotherapy does not benefit most women with early breast cancer. The new data, released at the 2018 ASCO annual meeting, will help inform treatment decisions for many women with early-stage breast cancer.

Do cancer study participants want to receive their genetic test results? A recent study involving women with a history of breast cancer tested an approach for returning genetic research results and evaluated the impact those results had on the women.

Researchers compared the risk of death for women with breast cancer who had low skeletal muscle mass, or sarcopenia, at the time of their cancer diagnosis and women who had adequate muscle mass.

Some people who have been treated for breast cancer or lymphoma have a higher risk of developing congestive heart failure than people who haven’t had cancer, results from a new study show.

FDA has approved the CDK4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib (Verzenio) as a first-line treatment in some women with advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Under the approval, the drug must be used in combination with an aromatase inhibitor.

A new study in mice raises the possibility that using microscopic, oxygen-carrying bubbles may improve the effectiveness of radiation therapy in the treatment of breast cancer.

The drug olaparib (Lynparza®) is the first treatment approved by the Food and Drug Administration for patients with metastatic breast cancer who have inherited mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.

Joint pain caused by aromatase inhibitors in postmenopausal women with breast cancer can cause some women to stop taking the drugs. Reducing their symptoms may translate into better adherence to therapy.