Overtreatment and Undertreatment of Early-Stage Breast Cancer in Older Women: Evaluating the POWER Trial.

Introduction: Radiation therapy (RT) omission is acceptable in older women with early-stage estrogen receptor + breast cancer treated with breast-conserving surgery (BCS) and adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET). However, RT rates in this population remain high, causing concern for overtreatment. Conversely, patients who omit RT and do not complete a course of AET are at risk of undertreatment.

A Pilot Study of the Combination of Entinostat with Capecitabine in Advanced Breast Cancer.

Background: Breast cancer has an unacceptably high recurrence rate when any residual disease is found following neoadjuvant treatment of high-risk disease. Based on clinical data suggesting an adjuvant role for epigenetic modifying agents in breast cancer and preclinical data suggesting synergistic activity of entinostat combined with capecitabine, we conducted a phase I, open-label study of these agents in metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Both agents have published doses for use in combination therapy, but the agents had not previously been combined with each other in a human trial.

Estrogen receptor positive breast cancer: contemporary nuances to sequencing therapy.

The treatment landscape of hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative metastatic breast cancer has evolved dramatically in recent years. While the combination of endocrine therapy and a cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor is accepted as standard first-line treatment in most settings without visceral crisis, newer therapies have challenged traditional treatment models where cytotoxic chemotherapy was previously felt to be the only second-line option at time of progression. The incorporation of next-generation sequencing has led to the identification of molecular targets for therapeutic agents, including phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and ESR1, though similar pathways can be targeted even in the absence of a mutation, such as with use of inhibitors of mammalian target of rapamycin.

Exploring the use and impact of the Australian living guidelines for the clinical care of people with COVID-19: where to from here?

Objectives: The Australian National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce has been developing, maintaining, and disseminating living guidelines and decision support tools (clinical flowcharts) for the care of people with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 since 2020. Living guidelines, a form of living evidence, are a relatively new approach; hence, more work is required to determine how to optimize their use to inform practice, policy, and decision-making and to explore implementation, uptake, and impact implications. An update of an earlier impact evaluation was conducted to understand sustained awareness and use of the guidelines; the factors that facilitate the widespread adoption of the guidelines and to explore the perceived strengths and opportunities for improvement of the guidelines.