"Extended Adjuvant Therapy In Breast Cancer Requires Individualized Approach" - Gina Columbus
“De-escalation of adjuvant therapy for patients with early-stage hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer continues to be an area of investigation, with the constant goal to avoid overtreatment in this population,” said Paula Klein, MD, and associate professor of medicine, hematology, and medical oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Researchers have been focused on how to best select patients for extended adjuvant therapy beyond 5 years of tamoxifen with additional time on tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor (AI). “The stage has been set to continue adjuvant therapy beyond the 5 years and there are some hallmark trials that certainly pave the way but, once again, with the full knowledge that we are over treating patients. There have been some studies looking at less of an extension that seem to be just as good. The goal is to find the high-risk patient who is bound to recur, despite the 5 years of endocrine therapy, and only treat those—that is the holy grail,” added Dr. Klein.
— Paula Klein, MD, Associate Professor, Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai