One For Choosing Wisely in Breast Cancer

A study presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium showed that Herceptin may not complement chemotherapy in breast tumors with a high level of immune infiltration.

HER2-positive breast cancers with a high level of immune cell infiltration might not benefit from the addition of trastuzumab (Herceptin) to chemotherapy, a trial analysis suggested.

The 10% of patients with stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte-predominant breast cancer in the Alliance N9831 trial showed similar recurrence-free survival whether they received chemotherapy alone or with trastuzumab (10-year rate 90.9% versus 80.0%, P = .21), Edith A. Perez, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and colleagues found.

The rest showed, as expected, significantly better recurrence-free survival with addition of trastuzumab (10-year rate 79.6% vs 64.3%, hazard ratio .49, P = .0003), they reported at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Link to the complete report: http://bit.ly/1GjDd6y

Source: Medpage Today