Hope Springs

After a break for Christmas, we are back with our February newsletter. Since our last edition, the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) took place although sadly due to COVID-19 the Charity was not able to attend in person this time. Every year, the Symposium brings together breast cancer researchers and clinicians from around theworld, presenting new and late-breaking research data and diagnostic developments. Some research highlights from the Symposium included:

Results of the adjuvant Metformin (diabetes drug) study has concluded that it shows no improvement for ER+ or ER-patients, potential improvements for HER2+ requires further research. In patients living with HER2+ brain metastases, updates from the HER2CLIMB trial continue to show that the addition of tucatinib to treatment regimen continues to give good overall survival results.

DESTINY-Breast03 has reported that that Trastuzumab Deruxtecan (T-DXd) was superior to Trastuzumab Emtansine (T-DM1) and should become standard second-line care in patients with HER2+ metastatic disease. For IBC there was encouraging news that ER+/HER2+ disease may now have encouraging survival outcomes compared to historical standards, looking at 5-year relapse-free survival. Hope in the form of the EMERALD Trial of Elacestrant (oestrogen degrader) for ER+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer reported a 30% reduction in the risk of progression. TNBC had a number of focussed sessions at the event, with KEYNOTE-522 presenting results supporting the use of pembrolizumab in combination with chemo offering a promising treatment strategy for TNBC patients at high-risk for early-stage disease. Further detail on the Symposium research presented is available at SABCS Meeting News.