5 Breast Cancer Research Takeaways From ESMO 2023
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2023 in Madrid, Spain, included nearly 30,000 participants involved in all aspects of cancer research, advocacy, and care. The five-day meeting featured a number of presentations on breast cancer treatments and care, including one on a promising new medicine for metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer and another on how short-term fasting before and after chemotherapy can help prevent fatigue.
Here are five important breast cancer takeaways from the conference.
An experimental targeted therapy medicine, called Dato-DXd, helped people diagnosed with metastatic, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer live longer without the cancer growing.
The TROPION-Breast01 trial focused on Dato-DXd, a type of medicine called an antibody-drug conjugate. The trial found that it offered longer progression-free survival than standard chemotherapy for inoperable or metastatic hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that had grown while being treated with hormonal therapy. The results suggest that Dato-DXd may join Enhertu (chemical name: fam-trastuzumab-deruxtecan-nxki) and Trodelvy (chemical name: sacituzumab govitecan-hziy) as antibody drug conjugates used to treat breast cancer.
Listen to The Breastcancer.org Podcast episode featuring Dr. Aditya Bardia discussing the TROPION-Breast01 results.Visit episode page for more infoPromising New Treatment for Metastatic Breast Cancer
Nov 2, 202300:0000:00Short-term fasting during chemotherapy seems to prevent fatigue and improve quality of life.
Taking in only about 200 daily calories for two days before and one day after chemotherapy improved quality of life and helped prevent fatigue in women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.
Read more about the benefits of short-term fasting during chemotherapy.Verzenio continues to reduce the risk of early-stage breast cancer coming back (recurrence) long after people stop taking it.
Results from the monarchE trial after five years of follow-up showed that, compared to people who took only hormonal therapy, people who took Verzenio (chemical name: abemaciclib) and hormonal therapy were less likely to have a breast cancer recurrence in the breast area. They were also less likely to have a distant, or metastatic, recurrence, which means the cancer comes back in a part of the body away from the breast.Pregnancy after breast cancer is safe in many cases, but there are factors a woman needs to consider.
Several studies have found that having a child after breast cancer treatment is safe for both the mother and the child. Still, women do need to take into account their personal risk of breast cancer recurrence, the characteristics of the breast cancer, and the medicines they’ve received when making decisions about pregnancy after breast cancer.
Listen to The Breastcancer.org Podcast episode with Dr. Ann Partridge discussing the ESMO 2023 session on pregnancy after breast cancer that she chaired.Fine-particle air pollution was linked to higher breast cancer risk.
A French study found that women who live and work in areas with a lot of fine-particle air pollution – think smoke, exhaust, and compounds that give paint its smell – were more likely to develop breast cancer than women in less polluted areas. While these results are very concerning, there are ways to check the air quality in your area and steps you can take to limit your exposure.
Learn more about this research on air pollution and breast cancer risk.
— Last updated on December 11, 2024 at 7:26 PM