ICYMI: Highlights From SABCS 2025

Our top 5 highlights from the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) include articles and interviews introducing new therapies, individualized care plans for menopausal women, and lifestyle changes that may decrease patients’ risk of breast cancer.

Here are our highlights from SABCS, and click here to see our full conference coverage.

5. Breast Cancer Survivors Benefit from Tailored, Team-Based Menopause Care

This session recap focused on balancing hormone therapies for patients with breast cancer who are also menopausal, premenopausal, or prematurely menopausal. The session panelists, Maryam Lustberg, MD, MPH, of Yale School of Medicine, and Lisa Larkin, MD, of Ms.Medicine, addressed the unmet needs of patients with breast cancer experiencing menopause. Lustberg emphasized that therapies used to treat breast cancer can often exacerbate menopause symptoms. Larkin compounded on Lustberg’s point, encouraging individualized care and shared decision-making, especially for patients who are at high-risk.

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4. SERENA-6 Trial Validates Molecular-Guided Therapy Switch to Camizestrant

An abstract presented at SABCS compiled evidence from 2 studies from the phase 3 SERENA-6 clinical trial that showed early switching from an aromatase inhibitor to camizestrant, an investigative, orally selective estrogen receptor degrader, to be significantly more effective for treating patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer with detectable ESR1 mutations when compared with an aromatase inhibitor (AI) and CDK4/6 inhibitor. The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 16.6 months in the camizestrant cohort when compared with the 9.2 months in the AI cohort for a 54% reduction in risk of death.

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3. Camizestrant-Related Photopsia Mostly Mild, Nondisabling in Patients With Advanced Breast Cancer: Adam Brufsky, MD, PhD

The American Journal of Managed Care^® spoke with Adam Brufsky, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, about his poster presentation on safety in relation to visual effects of switching to camizestrant from an AI for treating patients with HR-positive and HER2-negative advanced breast cancer with detectable ESR1 mutations. The most common adverse event observed in the clinical trial SERENA-6 was photopsia, leading researchers to perform extensive quality-of-life testing. However, the analysis concluded that the frequency of photopsia was minimal, was grade 1, and was nondisabling. Brusky affirmed that these results would reassure patients, as this adverse event in the real world is “not going to be substantial.”

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2. T-DXd Delivers Strong Breast Cancer Outcomes Across Groups

Two posters presented shared a common theme, providing crucial insights into the safety and efficacy of trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) for treating patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Both posters drew data from the DESTINY-Breast03 randomized clinical trial, which demonstrated a significantly greater PFS in the T-DXd cohort (29 months) when compared with the trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) cohort (7.8 months). The overall survival rate (OS) and estimated 5-year OS were also greater in the T-DXd cohort when compared with the T-DM1 cohort. The trial had a notably diverse patient population, addressing minority racial and ethnic groups with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

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1. Experts Warn Binge Drinking Drives Early-Onset Breast Cancer, While Cessation Reduces Risk

This recap session addressed the association between binge drinking and increased risk of breast cancer. Julia R. Palmer, ScD, MPH, of Boston University, highlighted evidence from numerous studies over the last 40 years about the increased risk of breast cancer for women who consume approximately 1 drink a day and an even higher risk among those who drink 1 daily or more than 7 per week. Research suggests that reducing or stopping alcohol consumption may lower breast cancer risk, particularly for patients with HR-positive breast cancer, though more definitive data are limited. Palmer emphasized the need for public education and clinical intervention to raise awareness of alcohol’s role in cancer risk and encourage lifestyle changes.

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