What is Your Tumor’s Mutation Burden?

bctt on February 1, 2020

The term “tumor mutation burden” refers to the number of mutations, or changes, seen in the DNA of your cancer cells. It is now one of the biomarkers used to determine cancer treatments. Studies suggest that tumors with a high number of mutations may be more likely to respond to a type of immunotherapy called a checkpoint inhibitor.

Below you can read more about how researchers are using tumor mutation burden to determine which treatments might be best for which patients. You will also find articles specific to studies that have looked at the relationship between tumor mutation burden and treatment outcomes in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Update

bctt on January 3, 2020

For women and men with triple-negative breast cancer, chemotherapy has been the primary treatment option. But as scientists learn more about subtypes of triple-negative breast cancer, clinical trials can better match new targeted therapies with specific triple-negative patients. These advances are what led to the FDA approval in March 2019 of the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab (Tecentriq®) to treat women and men with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer whose tumors test positive for PD-L1. And we can expect to see more trials that target specific subtypes of triple-negative cancer in the future.

Tips for Reading Cancer News

bctt on December 3, 2019

Groundbreaking. Game-changing. Promising. These are just some of the words often seen in media coverage of new cancer treatments. But how does a reader or viewer know what’s really groundbreaking and what’s just hype?

Below you will find three articles that explore challenges health care reporters face and biases that can affect what is covered and how.

We’ve also provided five articles that provide tips on how to read health news and how to spot misleading news coverage.

And don’t miss the link to FORCE’s XRAY–Behind the Metastatic Breast Cancer Headlines. XRAY: MBC reviews and rates articles about metastatic breast cancer.

Challenges health care reporters face:

Tips on how to read health news:

What is a Tumor Agnostic Therapy?

bctt on November 1, 2019

In May 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first tumor/tissue agnostic therapy. These drugs are approved for use for any tumor that has a specific mutation, regardless of where the tumor started. Since then, two more tumor/tissue agnostic therapies have been approved. The drugs that have been approved are:

 Pembrolizumab (Keytruda®), for metastatic cancers that have microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or DNA mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR). It is rare in breast cancer.
Larotrectinib (Vitrakvi®) and Entrectinib (Rozlytrek®), for metastatic cancers that have certain NTRK gene mutations. These mutations are found in about 2% of breast cancers.

Although these mutations aren’t common in breast cancer, more tumor/tissue agnostic therapies are in clinical trials which could potentially expand breast cancer treatment options.

Below you can learn more about the drugs that have been approved and how these tumor/tissue agnostic therapies are pushing the field of precision medicine forward. These drugs are often studied in basket trials, which enroll patients with many different types of cancer that all share a common mutation. You can read more about basket trials from BreastCancerTrials.org: All Open Basket Trials

Overview of Tumor Agnostic Therapy:

Tumor Agnostic Therapies:

Treating Brain Metastases

bctt on October 1, 2019

Studies suggest that between 15 and 30 percent of women and men with metastatic breast cancer will develop brain metastases. This number has been increasing as MBC patients live longer on treatments that control cancer growth in other areas of the body.

Clinical trials are currently looking at the best way to treat brain metastases. In September, the FDA approved neratinib (Nerlynx®) as a treatment for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Its previous approval was for extended adjuvant treatment for patients with early-stage HER2+ breast cancer who have already received trastuzumab (Herceptin®).

With the links below, you can learn more about developments in treating breast cancer brain metastases and the new FDA approval. You can also find links to all the clinical trials listed on BCT for breast cancer brain metastases, including the first trial to use CAR T cell therapy to treat HER2+ brain metastases.

New FDA Approval: A PI3K Inhibitor

bctt on September 3, 2019

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Piqray® for treating advanced breast cancer. Use the links below to learn more about the FDA approval and how PI3K inhibitors work and to find clinical trials on Metastatic Trial Search for Piqray and other therapies being tested in patients whose tumors have a PIK3CA mutation.

What is Oligometastatic Breast Cancer?

bctt on June 2, 2019

Women and men with metastatic breast cancer are typically told their cancer can be treated but not cured. This is true for most patients. But there are some patients who have only a small number of metastatic sites who doctors think may potentially have a different outcome. These patients have what is called oligometastatic breast cancer (OBC, oligo is Greek for few).

It is estimated that up to 20% of metastatic breast cancer patients have OBC. Oligometastases is not unique to breast cancer; it is seen in patients with other types of cancers as well. Studies have shown that tumors found in patients with oligometastatic cancer (OC) are biologically different from those seen in patients who have multiple sites of metastases. Whether OC responds to treatment better or is just slow growing isn’t clear.

Some of the articles below discuss OC in general. Others discuss OBC specifically. Each can help you better understand this subset of metastatic cancer and why researchers believe it could, potentially, be cured.

Oligometastatic Breast Cancer (OBC)

Oligometastatic Cancer (OC)

Visit Metastatic Trial Search to find trials for oligometastatic breast cancer.

First Immunotherapy Approved for MBC

bctt on April 1, 2019

Immunotherapies use the body’s immune system to fight cancer. In March, for the first time, the FDA approved an immunotherapy drug as a first-line treatment for metastatic breast cancer.

The drug, Tecentriq® (Atezolizumab), is a type of immunotherapy called a PD-L1 inhibitor. It had already been approved for other types of cancers. The new approval is for treating locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer that tests positive for PD-L1 when given along with the chemotherapy drug Abraxane® (nab-paclitaxel). The approval is based on progression-free survival data from the ongoing randomized, phase 3 IMpassion130 study (no longer recruiting as of April 1st, 2019).

In the links below you will find more information about the study findings that led to the drug’s approval.

There is one other immunotherapy that might be an option for a small number of metastatic breast cancer patients. It is the drug Keytruda® (Pembrolizumab), which was approved in May 2017 for patients with any type of metastatic solid tumor that is microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or has mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) and has progressed on other treatment. You can learn more about this approval here.

Get the Latest News on PARP Inhibitors

bctt on February 4, 2019

There are now two PARP inhibitors that have been approved to treat certain types of metastatic breast cancer. Clinical trials of other PARP inhibitors are now underway.

You can learn about the drugs that have been approved and where the research is headed in the articles and videos below.

You can also see all of the breast cancer clinical trials studying PARP inhibitors below.

PARP Inhibitors: Overview and Current Status 

PARP Inhibitor Therapy: Who & How

PARP Inhibitors: Challenges and Opportunities

Current PARP Inhibitors Trials:

New Research Presented at San Antonio

bctt on January 2, 2019

The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium is a key breast cancer conference that takes place each year. Researchers often use this meeting to report results from large studies that have the potential to change the standard of care for breast cancer treatment.

Below you will find links to some of the findings relevant to women and men living with metastatic breast cancer.