2020 Year in Review - Breast Cancer

In this study, a high rate of radiation toxicity was observed in patients with advanced breast cancer treated with CDK4/6 inhibitors.

Updated phase 2 study results of lerociclib (G1T38) combined with fulvestrant support continuous dosing without a drug holiday.

In the MONARCH plus study, the majority of abemaciclib-associated diarrhea events were low grade in severity and well managed by antidiarrheal medications, dose omissions, and/or dose reductions.

In this real-world setting study, similar healthcare costs and healthcare resource utilization among patients treated with ribociclib and palbociclib were observed. However, fewer inpatient days were experienced by patients treated with ribociclib when compared with abemaciclib.

Updated overall survival results from the phase 3 MONALEESA-7 trial show that in a 4-year extended follow-up study of pre- and perimenopausal patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, ribociclib plus endocrine therapy exhibited a clinically relevant overall survival benefit.

BYLieve study results show that alpelisib combined with fulvestrant demonstrates clinically meaningful efficacy and manageable toxicity in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, PIK3CA mutation–positive advanced breast cancer.

While radiation therapy is not currently used in combination with CDK4/6 inhibitors in clinical trial protocols, findings from this study support future consideration of this approach in clinical studies.

In this broad study of a diverse population, adverse events associated with the combination of ribociclib plus letrozole were manageable and consistent with previous phase 3 trials of the same combination, and adverse events of special interest markedly decreased over time.

While showing comparable efficacy, the 3 approved CDK4/6 inhibitors differ in safety and tolerability profiles.