Dr. Tolaney on Recent Advances in HR-Positive Breast Cancer

Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, instructor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, attending physician of medical oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses recent advances in the treatment of patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer.

In the last few decades, there have been a lot of changes in the treatment landscape of HR-positive metastatic breast cancer, Tolaney says. Specifically, the introduction of mTOR inhibitors in the last decade, and the approval of 3 different CDK4/6 inhibitors in the last 3 years. The 3 FDA approved CDK4/6 inhibitors in this setting are abemaciclib (Verzenio), ribociclib (Kisqali), and palbociclib (Ibrance).

CDK4/6 inhibitors are being used in the upfront and second-line settings with fulvestrant. There are also data on the use of CDK4/6 inhibitors as monotherapy, such as abemaciclib in the refractory setting. Abemaciclib was approved by the FDA in February 2018 for use in combination with an aromatase inhibitor for the frontline treatment of postmenopausal women with HR-positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer.