Disparities in access to anti-HER2 therapies in neoadjuvant chemotherapy: A prognostic analysis based on real-world data comparing Brazil's public and private healthcare systems.

Background: Trastuzumab has significantly improved the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer, particularly in the neoadjuvant setting, where its combination with chemotherapy increases the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate. This retrospective cohort study assesses the implications of disparities in access to trastuzumab within the Brazilian public healthcare system, focusing on pCR, overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in non-metastatic, HER2-positive breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).

Methods: The study was conducted in the Hospital Pérola Byington (PEROLA), a public institution, and in the Hospital do Servidor Público Estadual (HSPE), a private institution.

CHEK2-related breast cancer: real-world challenges.

Purpose: Management of cancer risks associated with the CHEK2 gene, a moderate penetrance breast cancer gene, is challenging in real-world practice. Family history, traditional breast cancer risk factors, and specific genetic CHEK2 variants are risk modifiers in this setting and add complexity for surveillance and risk-reduction decisions. Here, we present a case series of Brazilian CHEK2 carriers affected by breast cancer.

Pathologic complete response rates of patients with ER-low/HER2-negative breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in the neo-real study.

Purpose: Estrogen receptor-low (ER-low) breast cancer (BC) present clinicopathological features and disease behavior resembling triple-negative breast cancer, but have been frequently excluded from pivotal trials designed for the latter. Since neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy (P + CT) is the new standard of care for stage II-III triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), we aimed to access the effectiveness of this therapy for ER-low tumors.

Methods: We evaluated patients with ER-low BC included in the Neo-Real/ GBECAM-0123 study, a real-world data study evaluating patients treated with neoadjuvant P + CT since July 2020 across ten cancer centers.

Dose dense versus 3 weekly AC during neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy for triple negative breast cancer.

Neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy (P + CT) has emerged as a standard of care for stage II-III triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, the best anthracycline-cyclophosphamide (AC) schedule remains to be determined. While the KEYNOTE-522 regimen employs AC every 3 weeks (q3w AC), previous studies have shown overall survival benefits of dose-dense regimens for early-stage breast cancer.

p.R337H Germline Variant among Women at Risk of Hereditary Breast Cancer in a Public Health System of Midwest Brazil.

Despite the high prevalence of pathogenic variants (PV) carriers in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil, germline genetic testing for hereditary breast cancer (HBC) is not available in the Brazilian public health system, and the prevalence of Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is not well established in other regions of Brazil. We assessed the occurrence of p.R337H carriers among women treated for breast cancer (BC) between January 2021 and January 2022 at public hospitals of Brasilia, DF, Brazil.