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Although not yet practice changing in early-stage triple-negative breast cancer, growing evidence suggests that neoadjuvant platinum-based therapy is active and that some patients may benefit from such an approach. Recent randomized phase III data suggests that carboplatin has comparable efficacy to docetaxel as first-line therapy in unselected advanced triple-negative breast cancer. In both settings, the efficacy of such treatment appears to be influenced by BRCA1/2 mutation status, with carriers of these mutations experiencing higher response rates. To optimize patient selection, biomarkers of response need to be incorporated into randomized clinical trials and validated. In addition to BRCA1/2, it is likely that measures of genomic instability and other germline biomarkers beyond BRCA1/2 may be associated with therapeutic sensitivity.

The recent approval of 4 agents for the treatment of patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer has led to expanded recommendations in the NCCN Guidelines for treatment of this disease. For triple-negative disease, immunotherapy continues to gain traction in this challenging subtype, both in the preoperative and metastatic settings, though not yet as adjuvant treatment. Sacituzumab govitecan is another new agent with strong utility in triple-negative disease, and PARP inhibitors are recommended options in BRCA-mutated disease.

The use of trastuzumab in the adjuvant and metastatic treatment of breast cancer is associated with both symptomatic and asymptomatic cardiotoxicity. The long-term significance of these events, isolating known cardiotoxic effects of anthracyclines from those of trastuzumab, and the appropriateness of referring to trastuzumab-related cardiotoxicity as reversible rather than responsive to trastuzumab withdrawal and heart failure medical therapy, are issues that continue to be debated. This article provides an overview of the available cardiac safety data from the major trastuzumab clinical trials in breast cancer, highlighting areas of ongoing controversy. Important recent data documenting the occurrence and prognostic use of cardiac troponin I elevations among patients treated with trastuzumab are placed into context with the mechanistic insight these data provide and the implications for clinical practice today.

Advances in molecular testing have ushered in the new era of precision medicine. The 2018 publication of the TAILORx trial helped refine the use of genetic expression assays, specifically the 21-gene recurrence score, in assigning patients to endocrine therapy alone or with chemotherapy. The NCCN Guidelines for Breast Cancer explore the clinical applications of this study. The algorithm for managing the axilla in early breast cancer has been further refined, based on the presence or absence of clinical evidence of lymph node involvement. Ovarian suppression has been validated as the optimal approach in higher risk premenopausal women, based on updated analysis of the SOFT and TEXT pivotal trials. In the metastatic setting, the NCCN Guidelines further reinforce the benefit of the CDK4/6 inhibitors, extending the “preferred” recommendation to all the available agents in metastatic disease. Options in triple-negative breast cancer now include, for the first time, an immunotherapeutic agent.

Phyllodes tumors of the breast are unusual fibroepithelial tumors that exhibit a wide range of clinical behavior. These tumors are categorized as benign, borderline, or malignant based on a combination of histologic features. The prognosis of phyllodes tumors is favorable, with local recurrence occurring in approximately 15% of patients overall and distant recurrence in approximately 5% to 10% overall. Wide excision with a greater than 1 cm margin is definitive primary therapy. Adjuvant systemic therapy is of no proven value. Patients with locally recurrent disease should undergo wide excision of the recurrence with or without subsequent radiotherapy.

Purpose: We sought to evaluate whether pathologic nodal response was predictive of outcomes in women aged ≤40 years with breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Methods: A total of 220 patients treated with NAC between 1991 and 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Pathologic complete response (pCR) was defined as no evidence of residual invasive tumor in the breast and lymph nodes (LNs) (ypT0/Tis ypN0); partial response if there was no tumor in the LNs but residual tumor in the breast (ypT+ ypN0) or residual tumor in the LNs (ypT0/Tis ypN+); and limited response if there was residual tumor in both the breast and the LNs (ypT+ ypN+). Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards analyses were performed to identify factors predictive for overall survival (OS). Results: A total of 155 patients were included. Following NAC, 39 patients (25.2%) achieved pCR, 57 (36.8%) achieved a partial response (either ypT+ ypN0 or ypT0/Tis ypN+), and 59 (38.1%) had a limited response. A total of 22 patients (14.2%) experienced local failure, 20 (12.9%) experienced regional failure, and 59 (38.1%) experienced distant failure. Median OS for patients who achieved pCR was not reached, and was significantly worse for patients who had residual disease in the breast and/or LNs (P<.001). No difference in OS was seen among patients who had residual disease in the breast alone versus those who remained LN-positive (97 vs 83 months, respectively; P=.25). Subset analysis did not reveal differences in OS based on year of treatment or cN1 disease at the time of initial diagnosis. Conclusions: Women aged ≤40 years who achieved pCR had excellent outcomes; however, those who achieved a pathologic response in the LNs but had residual disease in the breast continued to have outcomes similar to those who remained LN-positive.

Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is one of the most penetrant forms of familial cancer susceptibility syndromes, characterized by early age at tumor onset and a wide spectrum of malignant tumors. Identifying LFS in patients with cancer is clinically imperative because they have an increased sensitivity to ionizing radiation and are more likely to develop radiation-induced secondary malignancies. This case report describes a young woman whose initial presentation of LFS was early-onset breast cancer and whose treatment of this primary malignancy with breast conservation likely resulted in a secondary malignancy arising in her radiation field. As seen in this case, most breast cancers in patients with LFS exhibit a triple-positive phenotype (estrogen receptor–positive/progesterone receptor–positive/HER2-positive). Although this patient met classic LFS criteria based on age and personal and family history of cancer, the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for Genetic/Familial High-Risk Assessment: Breast and Ovarian Cancer endorse genetic screening for TP53 mutations in a subset of patients with early-onset breast cancer, even in the absence of a suggestive family history, because of the potential for de novo TP53 mutations.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women in the United States and is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death. The overall management of breast cancer includes the treatment of local disease with surgery, radiation therapy, or both, and the treatment of systemic disease with cytotoxic chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, biologic therapy, or combinations of these. This article outlines the NCCN Guidelines specific to breast cancer that is locoregional (restricted to one region of the body), and discusses the management of clinical stage I, II, and IIIA (T3N1M0) tumors. For NCCN Guidelines on systemic adjuvant therapy after locoregional management of clinical stage I, II and IIIA (T3N1M0) and for management for other clinical stages of breast cancer, see the complete version of these guidelines at NCCN.org.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women in the United States and is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death. The overall management of breast cancer includes the treatment of local disease with surgery, radiation therapy, or both, and the treatment of systemic disease with cytotoxic chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, biologic therapy, or combinations of these. This portion of the NCCN Guidelines discusses recommendations specific to the locoregional management of clinical stage I, II, and IIIA (T3N1M0) tumors.

These NCCN Guideline Insights highlight the important updates to the systemic therapy recommendations in the 2016 NCCN Guidelines for Breast Cancer. In the most recent version of these guidelines, the NCCN Breast Cancer Panel included a new section on the principles of preoperative systemic therapy. In addition, based on new evidence, the panel updated systemic therapy recommendations for women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer in the adjuvant and metastatic disease settings and for patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. This report summarizes these recent updates and discusses the rationale behind them.