Key Breast Cancer Research Takeaways From the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting
The 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting attracts thousands of people engaged in all aspects of cancer research, care, and advocacy. The 2024 meeting ran from May 31 to June 4.
Breastcancer.org reported on the latest breast cancer research presented at the meeting, as well as recorded podcasts with advocates and experts. Here are the highlights.
See our latest coverage from the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting.
Eleonora Teplinsky, MD, head of breast and gynecologic medical oncology at the Valley-Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center, spoke with The Breastcancer.org Podcast about some of the research that she found most exciting and what it might mean for breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Enhertu appears to be effective new treatment for some metastatic HER2-low and -ultralow breast cancers
Enhertu (chemical name: fam-trastuzumab-deruxtecan-nxki) offered better progression-free survival and response rate than chemotherapy for metastatic, hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-low and HER2-ultralow breast cancer that had grown during hormonal therapy treatment, according to results from the DESTINY-Breast06 study. Read the Breastcancer.org Research News summary of the study.
Taxotere every three weeks less toxic for Black women
Black women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer who received the chemotherapy medicine Taxotere (chemical name: docetaxel) every three weeks instead of Taxol (chemical name: paclitaxel) every week had less severe peripheral neuropathy, according to a study. The women receiving Taxotere every three weeks had fewer dose reductions due to peripheral neuropathy, as well. Read the Breastcancer.org Research News summary of the study.
Ibrance and Aromasin plus ovarian suppression offers more benefits than Xeloda
The latest results from the Young-PEARL study show that Ibrance (chemical name: palbociclib) and Aromasin (chemical name: exemestane) along with ovarian suppression offers better progression-free survival in pre-menopausal women diagnosed with metastatic, hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that had grown during tamoxifen treatment. This didn’t lead to better overall survival, but if women received a CDK4/6 inhibitor after the cancer grew, overall survival was better.
Progression-free survival is how long people live without the cancer growing. Overall survival is how long people live whether or not the cancer grows.
Oncologist communication important for treatment completion
Patients who thought their providers were poor communicators were found to be less likely to stick with their treatment, according to a survey of nearly 1,000 members of the Breastcancer.org community. Memorial Sloan Kettering radiation oncologist Dr. Fumiko Chino presented these results at ASCO 2024. Listen to her explain the findings, as well as offer tips on how patients can have the best conversations with their oncologists on The Breastcancer.org Podcast.
How Are Your Oncologist’s Communication Skills?
Jun 4, 2024Verzenio helps treat certain metastatic breast cancers that grew during CDK4/6 inhibitor treatment
Results from the postMONARCH study show that people with metastatic hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer who received Verzenio (chemical name: abemaciclib) plus Faslodex (chemical name: fulvestrant) lived longer without the cancer growing than those who received Faslodex alone. The study included people who had previously experienced cancer growth while taking a CDK4/6 inhibitor and an aromatase inhibitor.
Polygenic risk score may better predict risk of triple-negative breast cancer in young Black women
Most women diagnosed with breast cancer don't have genetic mutations linked to a higher risk of the disease (for example, BRCA1 or BRCA2). Polygenic risk scores look for the presence of many common mutations and may be able to identify women at high risk that other tests miss.
Dr. Holly Pederson, of the Cleveland Clinic, and Dr. Elisha Hughes, of Myriad Genetics, discuss the research they presented at ASCO 2024 on the promise of these tools on The Breastcancer.org Podcast.
Predicting Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Risk in Young Black Women
Jun 1, 2024‘Genetic testing saved my life’
Brooklyn Olumba, PharmD, BcPs, is a clinical pharmacist in Houston. She spoke at ASCO Voices about how genetic testing helped her to receive a breast cancer diagnosis, and treatment, early.
Listen to Dr. Brooklyn Olumba share her personal story with The Breastcancer.org Podcast.
Taking inavolisib together with Ibrance (chemical name: palbociclib) and Faslodex (chemical name: fulvestrant) may help more people with a type of metastatic breast cancer experience a better quality of life and more days without severe pain, according to new results from the INAVO120 study.
People with metastatic, hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer with a PIK3CA mutation who took this combination of medicines maintained their ability to do daily tasks longer than people who took placebo with Ibrance and Faslodex. The findings come just weeks after Genentech, maker of inavolisib, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had granted breakthrough therapy designation for inavolisib. This designation means that the medicine’s approval process is being fast-tracked.
Most young women can conceive, give birth after breast cancer
Most women ages 40 or younger diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer who try to conceive after completing treatment are able to become pregnant and give birth.
Read more about this study on pregnancy outcomes for young women who have completed breast cancer treatment.
Three hours of gentle walking per week eases fatigue
Women receiving chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer who walked for 2.5 to 4 hours each week at a low intensity (less than 2.5 mph) or about 1 to 2.5 hours a week at a moderate intensity (2.6–4.5 mph) were 43% more likely to have less fatigue, according to a study.
Exercise is recommended to ease fatigue in people with cancer, but for people receiving chemotherapy it can be hard to do the recommended 150 minutes a week at moderate intensity or 75 minutes a week at vigorous intensity. The study showed that even low-intensity walking could help ease fatigue post-chemotherapy.
People with estrogen-receptor-low breast cancer benefit from hormonal therapy
People diagnosed with early-stage, estrogen-receptor-low breast cancer who took hormonal therapy after surgery had better survival than people who didn’t take hormonal therapy, according to a study. In estrogen-receptor-low breast cancer, a small percentage of cells have estrogen receptors.
The researchers looked at the records of 7,956 people diagnosed with stage I to stage III estrogen-receptor-low disease who received chemotherapy; 59% of them took hormonal therapy. They found that people who didn’t take hormonal therapy had worse overall survival and were about 20% more likely to die during follow-up than people who took hormonal therapy.
“These data strongly suggest that patients with estrogen-receptor-low breast cancer should be counseled regarding the benefit of [hormonal therapy after surgery] and practice guidelines should recommend it in this setting,” the researchers concluded.
Early genetic testing means better survival for younger women with BRCA mutation
Women age 40 years or younger who tested positive for a BRCA mutation before being diagnosed with breast cancer were more likely to be diagnosed with smaller and less invasive cancers than those who tested positive for BRCA after a breast cancer diagnosis, a study has found. Women who had the genetic testing done before being diagnosed with breast cancer were also more likely to live longer and without cancer coming back. The authors of the study concluded that the findings highlight the importance of “genetic counseling and testing to inform not only prevention, but tailored earlier detection, treatment, and follow-up strategies once diagnosed.”
Read more about BRCA and other gene mutations.
This content made possible, in part, by a grant from Lilly.
— Last updated on July 30, 2025 at 3:08 PM