Publications by authors named "Aafke Honkoop"

Article Synopsis
  • CDK4/6 inhibitors combined with endocrine therapy improve outcomes for patients with hormone-receptor positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, but evidence comparing first-line and second-line use is limited.
  • The phase 3 SONIA trial involved 1,050 patients and showed no significant overall benefit for using CDK4/6 inhibitors first-line compared to second-line (31.0 vs. 26.8 months median progression-free survival).
  • Although first-line treatment led to longer duration of CDK4/6 therapy and more severe side effects, the quality of life was similar for both treatment timing, questioning the necessity for first-line CDK4/6 inhibitor usage in all cases.
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Purpose: Patients with chemotherapy-induced ovarian function failure (CIOFF) may experience ovarian function recovery (OFR). Earlier, we showed that OFR during treatment with anastrozole impacted the prognosis of hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer (BC) patients with CIOFF. Here, we present the long-term follow-up results.

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Background: Obesity has been associated with an adverse prognosis and reduced efficacy of endocrine therapy in patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer (BC). This study determines the prognostic and predictive effect of body mass index (BMI) on the disease-free survival (DFS) of postmenopausal HR+ BC patients.

Methods: Patients were identified from the DATA study (NCT00301457), a randomized controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of 6 vs 3 years of anastrozole after 2 to 3 years of adjuvant tamoxifen in postmenopausal women with HR+ BC.

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Exploratory analyses of high-dose alkylating chemotherapy trials have suggested that BRCA1 or BRCA2-pathway altered (BRCA-altered) breast cancer might be particularly sensitive to this type of treatment. In this study, patients with BRCA-altered tumors who had received three initial courses of dose-dense doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (ddAC), were randomized between a fourth ddAC course followed by high-dose carboplatin-thiotepa-cyclophosphamide or conventional chemotherapy (initially ddAC only or ddAC-capecitabine/decetaxel [CD] depending on MRI response, after amendment ddAC-carboplatin/paclitaxel [CP] for everyone). The primary endpoint was the neoadjuvant response index (NRI).

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Article Synopsis
  • * 363 out of 422 men participated in the study, revealing that men had a higher average global health status score compared to women with BC, but also reported common symptoms like fatigue and pain.
  • * Overall, men with BC reported similar or better QoL than women, suggesting a need for future research on how treatment affects their symptoms and wellbeing over time.
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Article Synopsis
  • The DATA study assessed the impact of extending anastrozole treatment to either 3 or 6 years for women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer after they had been disease-free for 2-3 years post-tamoxifen.
  • The research, conducted in 79 Dutch hospitals, followed 1912 patients who were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment durations, examining their disease-free and overall survival rates over a minimum of 10 years.
  • Results showed that while the 6-year treatment group had a slightly better disease-free survival rate (69.2% vs. 66.0%), the difference was not statistically significant, suggesting extending treatment did not significantly improve outcomes for these patients.
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Article Synopsis
  • - The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of niraparib in patients with advanced breast cancer who had germline mutations and had previously undergone chemotherapy treatment.
  • - In a phase III trial called BRAVO, participants were randomly assigned to receive either niraparib or standard chemotherapy, and the primary goal was to measure progression-free survival (how long patients lived without their cancer worsening).
  • - Results showed that while niraparib had some effectiveness with a median progression-free survival of 4.1 months compared to 3.1 months in the standard chemotherapy group, challenges in assessing the data led to questioning the trial's outcomes.
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Importance: Primary analysis of the TRAIN-2 study showed high pathologic complete response rates after neoadjuvant chemotherapy with or without anthracyclines plus dual ERBB2 (formerly HER2) blockade.

Objective: To evaluate 3-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) of an anthracycline-free and anthracycline-containing regimen with dual ERBB2 blockade in patients with stage II and III ERBB2-positive breast cancer.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A total of 438 patients with stage II and III ERBB2-positive breast cancer were enrolled in this randomized, clinical, open-label phase 3 trial across 37 hospitals in the Netherlands from December 9, 2013, until January 14, 2016.

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Background: The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Dutch national screening program to a halt and increased the burden on health care services, necessitating the introduction of specific breast cancer treatment recommendations from week 12 of 2020. We aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the diagnosis, stage and initial treatment of breast cancer.

Methods: Women included in the Netherlands Cancer Registry and diagnosed during four periods in weeks 2-17 of 2020 were compared with reference data from 2018/2019 (averaged).

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Purpose: Tumor boards, clinical practice guidelines, and cancer registries are intertwined cancer care quality instruments. Standardized structured reporting has been proposed as a solution to improve clinical documentation, while facilitating data reuse for secondary purposes. This study describes the implementation and evaluation of a national standard for tumor board reporting for breast cancer on the basis of the clinical practice guideline and the potential for reusing clinical data for the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR).

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Previously, we showed that reintroduction of the same (first-line) chemotherapy at progression could only partially make up for the loss in efficacy as compared to continuously delivered first-line chemotherapy. Here, we report the probability of starting second-line study chemotherapy in the Stop&Go trial, and the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients who received both the first- and second-line treatment in an intermittent versus continuous schedule. First-line chemotherapy comprised paclitaxel plus bevacizumab, second-line capecitabine or non-pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, given per treatment line as two times four cycles (intermittent) or as eight consecutive cycles (continuous).

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Purpose: The phase III DATA study compared 6 and 3 years of adjuvant anastrozole following 2-3 years of tamoxifen in postmenopausal breast cancer patients. This pre-planned side-study assessed the relationship between a reduced bone mineral density (BMD) and distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS), and evaluated the effect of bisphosphonates on DRFS.

Methods: We selected all patients with a BMD measurement within 3 years after randomisation (landmark) without any DRFS events.

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Background: Skeletal muscle mass (SMM) loss is common in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients and associated with poor clinical outcomes, including increased treatment-related toxicities and reduced survival. Muscle loss may contribute to reduced health-related quality of life (HRQoL), including fatigue. Our aim was to study associations between changes in SMM and concomitant changes in patient-reported HRQoL.

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The phase III DATA study investigates the efficacy of adjuvant anastrozole (6 vs. 3 year) in postmenopausal women with breast cancer previously treated with 2-3 years of tamoxifen. This planned side-study assessed patterns of care regarding detection and treatment of osteopenia/osteoporosis, and trends in bone mineral density (BMD) during and after therapy.

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The DATA study (NCT00301457) compared 6 and 3 years of anastrozole in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer after 2-3 years of tamoxifen. Patients with chemotherapy-induced ovarian function failure (CIOFF) were also eligible, but could be at risk of ovarian function recovery (OFR). The current analysis compared the survival of women with CIOFF with definitely postmenopausal women and examined the influence of OFR on survival.

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Background: The optimal chemotherapy backbone for dual HER2 blockade in the neoadjuvant setting for early breast cancer is unknown. We investigated whether the addition of anthracyclines would improve pathological complete response compared with a carboplatin-taxane regimen, when given in combination with the HER2-targeted agents trastuzumab and pertuzumab.

Methods: The TRAIN-2 study is an open-label, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial being done in 37 hospitals in the Netherlands.

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Purpose: We determined if intermittent first-line treatment with paclitaxel plus bevacizumab was not inferior to continuous treatment in patients with HER2-negative, advanced breast cancer.

Methods: Patients were randomized to 2 × 4 cycles or continuous 8 cycles of paclitaxel plus bevacizumab, followed by bevacizumab maintenance treatment until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary endpoint was overall progression-free survival (PFS).

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Background: Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are given as adjuvant therapy for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women, also to those with chemotherapy-induced ovarian function failure. The current analysis reports on endocrine data of patients with chemotherapy-induced ovarian function failure who were included in the phase III DATA study assessing different durations of adjuvant anastrozole after tamoxifen.

Methods: We identified all patients with chemotherapy-induced ovarian function failure.

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Background: Breast cancer is more prevalent among women 60 years or older than among women younger than 60 years. However, we know much more about the breast cancer experiences of younger women than of older women. Such knowledge is important, for example, to guide treatment decisions or to provide psychosocial care.

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Background: The effect of extended adjuvant aromatase inhibition in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer after sequential endocrine therapy of tamoxifen followed by an aromatase inhibitor for a 5-year treatment period still needs clarification. To address this issue, we began the DATA study to assess different durations of anastrozole therapy after tamoxifen.

Methods: DATA was a prospective, randomised, open-label, multicentre, phase 3 study done in 79 hospitals in the Netherlands.

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We examined whether genetic polymorphisms (SNPs) in the capecitabine activation pathway and CDA enzymatic activity were associated with prognosis, benefit from capecitabine-containing treatment or capecitabine-related toxicities. The study population comprised 188 metastatic breast cancer patients of the ATX trial (EudraCT 2006-006058-83) randomized for first-line paclitaxel and bevacizumab with (ATX) or without capecitabine (AT). Cumulative capecitabine dose until grade ≥2 hand-foot syndrome or until first dose reduction were toxicity endpoints.

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Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes encoding key metabolising enzymes or involved in pharmacodynamics for possible associations with paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy.

Methods: The study population consists of 188 women from the multicenter, randomised, phase II ATX trial (BOOG2006-06; EudraCT number 2006-006058-83) that received paclitaxel and bevacizumab without or with capecitabine as first-line palliative therapy of HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. Genotyping of CYP2C8*3 (c.

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Background: The addition of pertuzumab to neoadjuvant trastuzumab-based chemotherapy improves pathologic complete response rates in HER2-positive breast cancer. However, increased toxicity has been reported with the addition of pertuzumab, and this may differ between various chemotherapy backbone regimens. We evaluated toxicities of pertuzumab when added to either FEC-T (5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, cyclophosphamide, trastuzumab) or weekly paclitaxel, trastuzumab, carboplatin (PTC).

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Purpose: In order to understand the multidimensional mechanism of fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) and to identify potential targets for interventions, it is important to empirically test the theoretical model of FCR. This study aims at assessing the validity of Lee-Jones et al.'s FCR model.

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