Watch these video interviews on the iPad edition of this issue conducted by OT reporter Dan Keller
Exercise Reduces AI-induced Joint Pain
Melinda Irwin, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, describes the results of a showing a beneficial effect of a year-long exercise program for women taking an aromatase inhibitor (AI) and experiencing arthralgia, compared with usual care alone (Abstract S3-03). In that study, the HOPE-Hormones and Physical Exercise trial, there was a dose-response effect of exercise on symptom scores, and exercise was beneficial for all the various subgroups analyzed. She noted that up to 50 percent of women taking an AI after surgery or other primary treatment for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer experience such joint pain, the most common reason for stopping the drugs.
TILs Predict Response to Trastuzumab in Early Breast Cancer
Sherene Loi, MD, PhD, Head of the Translational Breast Cancer Genomics Laboratory at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Australia, elaborates on the findings she reported from the GeparQuattro trial (Abstract S1-05) supporting a relationship between high levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and improved response in early-stage HER2-positive tumors for women receiving neoadjuvant trastuzumab. She also explains that data suggest that trastuzumab acts not only on the tumor but may enhance anti-tumor immunity.
Bisphosphonates Reduce Bone Recurrences and Increase Survival in Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Patients
Robert Coleman, MBBS, MD, Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Sheffield, noting that studies have shown varying outcomes for the use of bisphosphonates in breast cancer, discusses the meta-analysis he presented of all the adjuvant clinical trials from the past 15 years, based on data from about 18,000 women (Abstract S4-07). The results identified a reason for the variable results, he said, reviewing the findings about which subgroup may benefit most, with a recommendation for clinical practice.
'Adaptive Randomization' Identifies Biomarker in I-SPY 2 Trial
Hope Rugo, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the I-SPY 2 trial of carboplatin and the PARP-inhibitor veliparib added to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with triple-negative breast cancer. She describes a new method of adaptive trial design that validates effective therapies and weeds out ineffective ones as the trial proceeds. Subsequent patients are therefore assigned with a higher probability to therapies that are performing better for patients with their subtypes of cancer.
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