Cathy O'Leary
Treatments changing outcomes in metastatic breast cancer
People with metastatic breast cancer are more likely to live well after diagnosis thanks to new and emerging treatment options.
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Cathy O'Leary
During a recent Breast Cancer Trials webinar on metastatic breast cancer, which affects about 21,000 women, doctors spoke of encouraging progress with the disease.
Medical oncologist Dr Nicholas Zdenkowski, chair of Breast Cancer Trials scientific advisory committee, said it was becoming increasingly common for people to live well for many years after a diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer.
“Our hope, if not to cure metastatic breast cancer – and we would be very reluctant to use that ‘c’ word – is to see people live well for a long time after diagnosis and treated as potentially a chronic condition.
“The particular treatments that have given me the most optimism over the last 10 years or so are the immunotherapies, particularly in triple negative breast cancer in the metastatic setting.
“I have seen some impressive responses to immunotherapy, and quite durable responses to the point where the cancer just melts away and remains under good control.
“And the other one is T-DXd (trastuzumab deruxtecan) for HER2 which is an antibody drug conjugate and that has had some very impressive data and clinical responses in patients who were able to continue with that treatment and with cancer under control for a long time, particularly with HER2-positive breast cancer.”
Dr Zdenkowski said oral treatments in HER2-positive breast cancer had also had good results, with patients “able to do a lot of things they enjoy doing like travelling and spend time with friends and family and have good quality of life”.
He foreshadowed more progress into the use of ADGs combined with immunotherapy, which were more targeted.
“We’ve also seen some very nice combination therapies come out of a Breast Cancer Trials study that show for first line metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer some impressive duration of response, with a combination of antibodies plus the CDK inhibitor.
“We just need to very cognisant of ensuring that we’re able to maintain quality of life as well as quantity of life.”