5 Key Takeaways From the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium

The 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), now in its 45th year, featured five days of research presentations, posters, and educational events. It also included a number of significant updates from ongoing studies — so much so that Dr. Stephanie Graff, director of breast oncology at the Lifespan Cancer Institute at Brown University and co-leader of the Breast Cancer Translational Research Disease Group, called it “the year of follow-ups.” Although these updates don’t make as big of a splash as new research, they are still newsworthy. “[What’s] important to us [in] treating breast cancer,” Dr. Graff says, “is not just that we get a great first response, but that we get durable responses — that what we do lasts, and that what we do is safe not just today but for a long time.”

Here are five important takeaways for people who’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer.

1. Women with an intermediate Oncotype DX Recurrence Score can safely skip chemotherapy. 

Eleven years of follow-up data from the TAILORx trial confirms 2018 results that women diagnosed with early-stage, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer with a Recurrence Score of 11 to 25 can safely skip chemotherapy and take hormonal therapy alone after surgery. 

2. Study confirms the benefits of Verzenio for early-stage, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. 

The monarchE study looked at adding Verzenio (chemical name: abemaciclib) to hormonal therapy after surgery for early-stage, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer with a high risk of recurrence. Now, four years of follow-up validate the initial results, and show that the benefits continue after people complete Verzenio treatment. 

Read more about the initial study results. 

Listen to Dr. Stephen Johnston explain the results of the monarchE trial on The Breastcancer.org Podcast.

3. DESTINY-Breast03 study results confirm the benefits of Enhertu for metastatic, HER2-positive breast cancer. 

The DESTINY-Breast03 study compared Enhertu (chemical name: fam-trastuzumab-deruxtecan-nxki) with Kadcyla (chemical name: T-DM1 or ado-trastuzumab emtansine) for previously treated metastatic, HER2-positive disease. These new results underscore earlier results showing Enhertu offers better progression-free survival than Kadcyla and strongly suggest that Enhertu also offers better overall survival. 

Listen to Dr. Sara Hurvitz discuss the results on The Breastcancer.org Podcast.

4. Elacestrant continues to offer more benefits than Faslodex for metastatic, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. 

The latest results from the EMERALD trial show that experimental elacestrant, an oral selective estrogen receptor downregulator (SERD), continues to offer more benefits than Faslodex (chemical name: fulvestrant) for metastatic, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that grew during treatment with hormonal therapy and a CDK4/6 inhibitor, including cancers with an ESR1 mutation. 

Listen to Dr. Virginia Kaklamani explain the results on The Breastcancer.org Podcast.

Editor’s Note: On Jan. 27, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Orserdu (chemical name: elacestrant) to treat advanced-stage or metastatic, estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer with an ESR1 mutation that has grown after being treated with at least one hormonal therapy medicine in men and post-menopausal women. Learn more about Orserdu.

5. It’s safe for younger women to pause hormonal therapy to have a child. 

Results from the POSITIVE trial, which started in 2017, found that younger women (age 42 and under) diagnosed with early-stage, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer could temporarily stop hormonal therapy after surgery to try to become pregnant; pausing hormonal therapy didn’t increase the risk of recurrence. 

Listen to Dr. Ann Partridge discuss the study on The Breastcancer.org Podcast.

Dr. Stephanie Graff breaks down the key takeaways from the symposium for people who’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Listen to Dr. Stephanie Graff share her SABCS insights on The Breastcancer.org Podcast.