Antibody-drug conjugates have shown impressive clinical outcomes, particularly in metastatic breast cancer, but biomarkers to predict response and resistance remain unidentified. Here we report the results of ICARUS-BREAST01, a phase 2 study evaluating efficacy, safety and biomarkers of response and resistance to patritumab deruxtecan (HER3-DXd), in patients with HRHER2 metastatic breast cancer, who previously progressed on CDK4/6 inhibitors and one line of chemotherapy. From May 2021 to June 2023, 99 patients were enrolled to receive HER3-DXd 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the UNIRAD phase III trial, evening intake of tamoxifen was previously associated with improved disease-free survival (DFS), while no timing effect was observed for aromatase inhibitors. This sub-study evaluated whether the timing of everolimus intake affects DFS in patients receiving adjuvant endocrine therapy (ET). A total of 1278 patients with high-risk HR+/HER2- early breast cancer were randomized to receive adjuvant ET with either placebo or everolimus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Escalation of adjuvant systemic therapies (eg, with cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 inhibitors) is now indicated for patients with clinically defined high-risk estrogen receptor-positive (ER+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-) early breast cancer, although it is unclear which will benefit from additional therapies. We developed and validated a prognostic clinicopathologic assay identifying a subpopulation of high-risk patients with good prognosis after standard adjuvant therapies, who may safely forgo treatment escalation.
Methods: We trained a Cox proportional-hazards model that integrates clinicopathologic variables with features derived from digitized hematoxylin-and-eosin-stained resection slides from a retrospective data set.
Breast cancer is characterized by genetic and epigenetic deregulations, leading to aberrant expression of tissue-specific genes that are normally silent in healthy breast tissue. Our previous work identified the embryonic stem cell-specific gene , a DNA methyltransferase, as aberrantly activated in breast cancer, correlating with aggressive tumour behaviour and high relapse risk, regardless of molecular subtype. Through integrative bioinformatic analyses of DNA methylation and transcriptomic data, we identified 154 genes downregulated via -driven promoter hypermethylation, many of which are associated with high relapse risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBr J Cancer
September 2025
Background: Treatment of advanced estrogen receptor-positive HER-2-negative breast cancer is based on hormonal therapy with aromatase inhibitors for postmenopausal women. However, acquired endocrine resistance is unavoidable at some point in the advanced or metastatic stage, and its underlying molecular mechanisms remain to be fully elucidated. The study prospectively included patients with advanced or metastatic breast cancer who had relapsed or progressed following treatment with a non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor (AI) and were treated with exemestane (a steroidal AI) and everolimus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLeptomeningeal disease (LMD) from breast cancer is defined by the invasion of the leptomeninges and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) by tumor cells. Historically associated with a very poor prognosis and survival measured in weeks, their management has evolved considerably. Therapeutic advances, such as the introduction of targeted therapies, and a better understanding of the pathophysiology of LMD now enable earlier diagnosis through dedicated MRI sequences and optimized CSF analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndocrine therapy (ET) is recommended for patients with estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) metastatic breast cancer (mBC), but most patients will develop treatment resistance, often due to mutations in the ER-α-coding gene, . Therapeutic options are limited for endocrine-resistant mBC, particularly following treatment with a cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor (CDK4/6i). Lasofoxifene had anti-tumor activity in two separate phase 2, open-label studies (ELAINE 1 and 2) when given as monotherapy or combined with abemaciclib.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNovel selective estrogen receptor degraders (SERDs) are a promising therapeutic option under investigation for patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer. The efficacy of novel SERDs in the treatment of advanced disease has prompted investigation into their use in the early disease setting, to reduce breast cancer recurrence. Here, we describe the design and rationale of the phase III, randomized, open-label CAMBRIA-1 and CAMBRIA-2 studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Oncol
December 2024
Background: Alpelisib, a PI3Kα-selective inhibitor and degrader, plus fulvestrant showed efficacy in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, PIK3CA-mutated advanced breast cancer in SOLAR-1; limited data are available in the post-cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor setting. BYLieve aimed to assess alpelisib plus endocrine therapy in this setting in three cohorts defined by immediate previous treatment; here, we report results from cohort A.
Methods: This ongoing, phase 2, multicentre, open-label, non-comparative study enrolled patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, advanced breast cancer with tumour PIK3CA mutation, following progression on or after previous therapy, including CDK4/6 inhibitors, from 114 study locations (cancer centres, medical centres, university hospitals, and hospitals) in 18 countries worldwide.
Background: Demonstration of trial emulation ability to benchmark randomised controlled trials (RCTs) from real-world data (RWD) is required to increase confidence in the use of routinely collected data for decision making in oncology.
Methods: To assess the frequency with which emulation findings align with RCTs regarding effect size on overall survival (OS) in metastatic breast cancer (MBC), 8 of 13 pre-selected pivotal RCTs in MBC were emulated using data from 32,598 patients enrolled in the French ESME-MBC cohort between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2021. Adjustment methods and confounders were selected a priori for each emulation; stabilized weight was the reference method to mitigate confounding.
Background: Copy number alterations (CNA) are acquired during the evolution of cancers from their early stage to metastatic stage. This study aims at analysing the clinical value of the identified metastasis-associated CNAs both in metastatic breast cancers (mBCs) and early breast cancers (eBCs).
Methods: Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-array was performed on 926 biopsies from mBC patients, enrolled in SAFIR02-BREAST prospective trial.
Cancer Med
May 2024
Background: Early access program (formerly cohort Temporary Authorization for Use) was granted for trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) in France based on DESTINY-Breast01 trial which demonstrated its efficacy and safety in HER2-positive metastatic/unresectable breast cancer after ≥2 anti-HER2-based regimens received at metastatic stage.
Methods: This multicenter real-world early access program included HER2-positive metastatic/unresectable breast patients pretreated with at least two lines of anti-HER2 regimens who received T-DXd 5.4 mg/kg intravenously in monotherapy every 3 weeks.
Background: Circadian rhythms regulate cellular physiology and could influence the efficacy of endocrine therapy (ET) in breast cancer (BC). We prospectively tested this hypothesis within the UNIRAD adjuvant phase III trial (NCT01805271).
Methods: 1278 patients with high-risk hormonal receptor positive (HR+)/HER2 negative (HER2-) primary BC were randomly assigned to adjuvant ET with placebo or everolimus.
The incidence of leptomeningeal metastases (LM) is increasing among breast cancer patients, but their prognosis remains dismal. Many therapeutic options are now available to treat HER2-positive (HER2+) metastatic breast cancer (MBC) involving the central nervous system (CNS). This case report illustrates a long-lasting response of more than 2 years in a patient with HER2+ MBC with LM after sequential administration of systemic and intrathecal (IT) anti-HER2 therapies and highlights that an appropriate treatment of HER2+ LM can result in durable survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To identify patients most likely to respond to everolimus, a mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor, a prospective biomarker study was conducted in hormone receptor-positive endocrine-resistant metastatic breast cancer patients treated with exemestane-everolimus therapy.
Methods: Metastatic tumor biopsies were processed for immunohistochemical staining (p4EBP1, PTEN, pAKT, LKB1, and pS6K). ESR1, PIK3CA and AKT1 gene mutations were detected by NGS.
Eur J Cancer
January 2024
.In patients with hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative advanced breast cancer, the STIC CTC trial established that, for choosing between endocrine therapy (ET) or chemotherapy, the use of circulating tumor cell (CTC) count is noninferior to the investigator's choice in terms of progression-free survival. Here, we report overall survival (OS) results, a secondary end point.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Several randomized clinical trials provide evidence of the survival benefit of extended adjuvant tamoxifen in women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive early breast cancer (BC). However, non-adherence may lead to underestimate treatment effects using intention to treat (ITT) methods. We reanalyzed a randomized trial using contemporary statistical methods adjusting for non-adherence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDe novo oligometastatic breast cancer, a unique disease needing new treatment paradigms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although adjuvant cancer treatments increase cure rates, they may induce clonal selection and tumor resistance. Information still lacks as whether (neo)adjuvant anti-HER2 treatments impact the patterns of recurrence and outcomes of HER2-positive (HER2+) metastatic breast cancer (MBC). We aimed to assess this in the large multicenter ESME real-world database.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTher Adv Med Oncol
August 2023