Use and duration of chemotherapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer according to tumor subtype and line of therapy.

Benefits of chemotherapy vary in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). This article describes the impact of tumor subtype and the line of therapy on the duration of chemotherapy. Clinicopathologic characteristics were extracted from the medical records of 199 consecutive patients with MBC at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and analyzed according to subtype.

NCCN Task Force Report: Bone Health In Cancer Care.

Bone health and maintenance of bone integrity are important components of comprehensive cancer care. Many patients with cancer are at risk for therapy-induced bone loss, with resultant osteoporotic fractures, or skeletal metastases, which may result in pathologic fractures, hypercalcemia, bone pain, and decline in motility and performance status. Effective screening and timely interventions are essential for reducing bone-related morbidity.

Clinicopathological features among patients with advanced human epidermal growth factor-2-positive breast cancer with prolonged clinical benefit to first-line trastuzumab-based therapy: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: The magnitude of benefit of trastuzumab for the treatment of advanced HER2-positive breast cancer varies widely. In this retrospective study, we investigated the clinicopathological features associated with prolonged first-line trastuzumab-based treatment duration.

Patients And Methods: A total of 164 patients diagnosed with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer and treated with first-line trastuzumab-based therapy from 1999 to 2009 were identified.

Individualizing care for women with early-stage breast cancer: the role of molecular assays.

Traditionally, a variety of factors were used to make adjuvant treatment decisions in breast cancer, but none of those factors, except grade, has a consistent association with sensitivity to chemotherapy or endocrine therapy. However, oncologists now are able to use molecular assays as a component of decision making for adjuvant therapy. This article focuses on the use of two of those molecular assays and their implications for nurses.

Nursing perspectives on fulvestrant for the treatment of postmenopausal women with metastatic breast cancer.

Fulvestrant is an estrogen receptor antagonist indicated for the treatment of hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC) in postmenopausal women with disease progression following antiestrogen therapy. Fulvestrant has a different mechanism of action than other hormonal therapies, including aromatase inhibitors and tamoxifen. In clinical trials of postmenopausal women with MBC, fulvestrant was effective and well tolerated compared to anastrozole after failure of tamoxifen.

Sequential therapy with tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors in early-stage postmenopausal breast cancer: a review of the evidence.

Purpose/objectives: To review the available evidence for the emerging role of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) in postmenopausal women with hormone-sensitive early-stage breast cancer.

Data Sources: Studies published in journals indexed in PubMed and abstracts and presentations from international conferences.

Data Synthesis: Switching to an AI improves survival and reduces cancer recurrence in postmenopausal women who have received two or three years of adjuvant tamoxifen treatment but presents challenges with regard to patient selection, cost, and management of treatment-related adverse events such as bone loss and arthralgia.

Inadvertent use of aromatase inhibitors in patients with breast cancer with residual ovarian function: cases and lessons.

Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are important adjunctive therapy for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive, early-stage breast cancer. At the present time, AIs have no role for the management of breast cancer in premenopausal women. We report on several cases of the inadvertent use of AI therapy among women with residual ovarian function.