Dr. Twelves Highlights Findings From the 2012 SABCS

Christopher Twelves, MD, Professor and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology, University of Leeds, highlights key findings from the 2012 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, which took place in December 2012.

In the adjuvant setting, Twelves says, there is clear indication from the HERA trial that one year of trastuzumab is as effective as two years of trastuzumab. This trial showed that disease-free survival and overall survival (OS) was similar with both treatment durations.

In patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, the novel therapies T-DM1 and pertuzumab have proven substantial effectiveness.

In the endocrine setting, data from the ATLAS trial showed that 10 years of the hormonal therapy tamoxifen reduced mortality risk by 2.8% and the rate of recurrence by 25%, demonstrating superiority to five years of tamoxifen.

In hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer, everolimus has shown the ability to reverse resistance, Twelves says. In final progression-free survival (PFS) analysis of the phase III BOLERO-2 trial, data demonstrated that the addition of everolimus to exemestane prolonged PFS in all patient subsets.

A larger dose of fulvestrant was superior in the CONFIRM trial, offering another option in ER-positive metastatic breast cancer patients. The median OS in the 500 mg arm was 26.4 months compared to 22.3 months in the 250 mg arm (HR = 0.81; P = .016).