scholarly journals Hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer: controversies in the use of adjuvant chemotherapy

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 1091-1102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filippo Montemurro ◽  
Massimo Aglietta
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Adjuvant Chemotherapy ◽  
Endocrine Therapy ◽  
Hormone Receptor ◽  
Combined Treatment ◽  
Her2 Positive ◽  
Hormone Receptor Positive ◽  
Current Controversy ◽  
Molecular Bases

Current adjuvant treatments for operable breast cancer include chemotherapy, endocrine therapy in hormone receptor-positive tumors, and trastuzumab for HER2-positive tumors. Metanalyses of randomized trials show that in patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, the effects of endocrine therapy and chemotherapy on survival are non-mutually exclusive. Most of these patients are therefore considered candidates to combined treatment. Recently, however, the endocrine responsiveness of tumors has been redefined on clinical, histopathological, and molecular bases. An emerging concept is that as endocrine responsiveness increases, chemoresponsiveness decreases. In the adjuvant setting, therapeutic choices are often based on small projected improvements in clinical outcomes. As a consequence, the role of chemotherapy and traditional management algorithms in patients with hormone receptor positive is being challenged. This review will address the current controversy regarding the role of adjuvant chemotherapy, including the newer anthracycline and taxane-based programs, in these patients.

scholarly journals Top 3 abstracts concerning hormone-receptor-positive early breast cancer

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Peter Gampenrieder ◽  
Gabriel Rinnerthaler ◽  
Richard Greil
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Adjuvant Chemotherapy ◽  
Endocrine Therapy ◽  
Early Breast Cancer ◽  
Hormone Receptor ◽  
Menopausal Status ◽  
Pathologic Complete Response ◽  
Oncotype Dx ◽  
Hormone Receptor Positive ◽  
Her2 Breast Cancer

SummaryThe three top abstracts at the 2020 virtual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium regarding hormone-receptor-positive early breast cancer, from our point of view, were the long-awaited results from PenelopeB and RxPONDER as well as the data from the ADAPT trial of the West German Study Group. PenelopeB failed to show any benefit by adjuvant palbociclib when added to standard endocrine therapy in patients without pathologic complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. RxPONDER demonstrated that postmenopausal patients with early hormone receptor positive (HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2−) breast cancer, 1–3 positive lymph nodes and an Oncotype DX Recurrence Score of less than 26 can safely be treated with endocrine therapy alone. In contrast, in premenopausal women with positive nodes, adjuvant chemotherapy plays still a role even in case of low genomic risk. Whether the benefit by chemotherapy is mainly an indirect endocrine effect and if ovarian function suppression would be similarly effective, is still a matter of debate. The HR+/HER2− part of the ADAPT umbrella trial investigated the role of a Ki-67 response to a short endocrine therapy before surgery in addition to Oncotype DX—performed on the pretreatment biopsy—to identify low-risk patients who can safely forgo adjuvant chemotherapy irrespective of menopausal status.

scholarly journals Modest benefits of adjuvant chemotherapy in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany H. Svahn ◽  
Robert W. Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Adjuvant Chemotherapy ◽  
Endocrine Therapy ◽  
Hormone Receptor ◽  
Progesterone Receptors ◽  
Metastatic Breast ◽  
Adjuvant Trastuzumab ◽  
Hormone Receptor Positive ◽  
Trastuzumab Therapy ◽  
Positive Breast Cancer

The benefits of adjuvant chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, and trastuzumab therapy are well-established in patients with early breast cancer. Further, there are patient and tumor characteristics that can assist in predicting which patients are more likely to benefit from specific adjuvant therapies. For example, patients whose tumors express estrogen and/or progesterone receptors (ER/PR) derive significant benefit from adjuvant endocrine therapy, whereas those whose tumors do not express these receptors derive very little or no benefit from endocrine therapy [1]. Patients whose tumors overexpress HER2 experience profound benefits from treatment with adjuvant trastuzumab [2,3]. We have recently begun to understand that ER/PR-positive breast cancer also responds differently to chemotherapy than its hormone receptor-negative counterpart. This is not, however, entirely new information. As early as 1978, it was retrospectively observed that ER-positive metastatic breast cancer had lower response rates to a variety of older chemotherapy regimens than did ER-negative disease [4].

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