ESMO 2021 Coverage

Enhertu Dramatically More Effective Than Kadcyla as Second Treatment for Metastatic HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
September 22, 2021
Enhertu more than doubled the 12-month progression-free survival rate than Kadcyla in people diagnosed with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer that had been previously treated. Read more...

Adding Kisqali to Femara Improves Overall Survival for Postmenopausal Women With Advanced-Stage Hormone-Receptor-Positive HER2-Negative Breast Cancer
October 5, 2021
Adding Kisqali to Femara as a first treatment for advanced-stage hormone-receptor-positive HER2-negative breast cancer in postmenopausal women improved overall survival by more than 1 year. Read more...

Adding Keytruda to Chemotherapy Improves Overall Survival in Metastatic, Strongly PD-L1-Positive Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
October 5, 2021
Adding the immunotherapy medicine Keytruda to chemotherapy improved overall survival more than chemotherapy alone in people diagnosed with metastatic triple-negative, strongly PD-L1-positive breast cancer, according to the KEYNOTE-355 study's final results. Read more...

Breast Cancer Research at ESMO 2021

October 21, 2021

Dr. Brian Wojciechowski practices medical oncology in Delaware County, Pennsylvania at Riddle, Taylor, and Crozer hospitals and also serves as Breastcancer.org's medical adviser. A native of South Philadelphia, he trained at Temple University School of Medicine and Lankenau Medical Center. Dr. Wojciechowski is a sought-after speaker on the topics of medical ethics and the biology of cancer.

Dr. Wojciechowski joined us to talk about some of the most notable research at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2021.

Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Wojciechowski explain:

• what an antibody-drug conjugate is
• results from the DESTINY-Breast03 study, showing Enhertu more than doubled the 12-month progression-free survival rate compared to Kadcyla in people diagnosed with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer that had been previously treated
• results from the BrighTNess study, showing adding carboplatin to chemotherapy before surgery improves progression-free survival.

Running time: 14:09

Listen now or read the transcript.

Keytruda Added to Chemotherapy Improves Overall Survival for Metastatic PD-L1-Positive, Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

September 24, 2021

Dr. Hope Rugo is professor of medicine in the division of hematology and oncology at the University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, where she is also the director of breast oncology and clinical trials education. Dr. Rugo is also a member of the Breastcancer.org Professional Advisory Board. She is a principal investigator of a number of clinical trials looking at combining new targeted and immunotherapy medicines with standard treatments for both early-stage and advanced-stage breast cancer and has published hundreds of peer-reviewed papers.

At the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2021, Dr. Rugo presented final results from the KEYNOTE-355 trial, which was looking to see if Keytruda (chemical name: pembrolizumab) and chemotherapy were better than chemotherapy alone as a first treatment for metastatic PD-L1-positive, triple-negative breast cancer. Earlier results found that adding Keytruda to chemotherapy improved progression-free survival — how long people lived before the cancer grew — for this type of breast cancer. These new results show that adding Keytruda improves overall survival — how long people live whether the breast cancer grows or not.

Listen to the podcast to hear Dr. Rugo explain:

• what the KEYNOTE-355 aimed to do
• whether Keytruda offers benefits for PD-L1-negative disease
• why it's important for a medicine to improve overall survival as well as progression-free survival
• the differences in PD-L1 tests and what they mean for the effectiveness of breast cancer checkpoint inhibitor medicines

Running time: 25:03