St Gallen 2017

Dr Cardoso speaks with ecancer about the upcoming IMPAKT conference, highlighting the educational and interactive elements of the biomarker-focused meeting.

Dr Aapro speaks with ecancer at 2017 St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference about the All.Can initiative, which aims to reduce waste and improve innovation in developing cancer treatments. He outlines next steps for the initiative, through publication of their position paper, to begin identifying key points in treatment development and administration where waste can be reduced across Europe. Dr Aapro anticipates this international approach developing over the next year, and hopes that it may enable more localised engagement with treatment schedules.

Dr Morrow speaks with ecancer at 2017 St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference about how to control the intensity and side effects of treating breast cancer. She notes the potential implications of de-escalating surgery for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and gives long-term results for early stage breast cancer patients who can avoid axillary dissection with low risk of local recurrence. Finally, Dr Morrow describes prospective studies showing that negative sentinel node biopsy indicates no benefit from axillary dissection, and weighs how tumour genotyping can guide treatment choices and timing between surgical of chemotherapeutic intervention.

Prof Loi speaks with ecancer at 2017 St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference about the oncogenic pathways upregulated in triple negative breast cancer, which can be highly resistant to chemotherapy. She highlights how genome sequencing has unveiled a patchwork of heterogeneity in tumours, with gene replication and a varied sea of clonotypes which leave targeted or immune therapies unable to deliver significant damage. Prof Loi hopes that further understanding of these mechanisms will aid in developing combinations of therapies for the disease.

Dr Poortmans speaks with ecancer at the 2017 St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference about maturing data from recent clinical trials. He highlights the improved outcomes of breast conservation and radiotherapy after lumpectomy as results whose significance is now becoming apparent, and discusses the role of surgery in managing breast cancer, as presented by Dr Monica Morrow. Dr Poortmans also considers the timing of radiotherapy for breast cancer, with conference presentations weighing intra-operative and post-operative radiotherapy. Overall, he describes the need for collaboration and personalisation of treatment to patients, aiming always for the maximum benefit with the minimum impact on quality of life.

Summing up data discussed at the ecancer CDK symposium at the St Gallen 2017 conference, Dr Giuseppe Curigliano (European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy), Dr Carmen Criscitiello (European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy), Dr Ghadeer Shubassi (Toronto, Canada) and Prof Pierfranco Conte - Istituto Oncologico Veneto, Padova, Italy) begin with a review of the MONALEESA trial program of ribociclib. In the PALOMA trials, Dr Criscitiello describes the successes of palbociclib of treating patients sensitive and resistant to endocrine therapy. Considering the therapeutic and financial value of establishing a prognostic biomarker, Dr Shubassi looks to substrates in the endocrine pathway that may prove useful, though none has yet been established. Prof Conte highlights that, for patients best suited to endocrine therapy, CDK therapy may be suitable in a second line setting, but that a number of long-term questions about CDK suitability remain unanswered. Discussion then turns to the significance of progression-free survival as a trial endpoint in comparison to overall survival, which requires data gathered over a time-scale not yet reached in any trial of CDK inhibition.

Dr Loibl speaks with ecancer about the upcoming IMPAKT conference, which aims to provide up-to-date clinical updates in using biomarker analysis to treat cancer.

Dr Galimberti speaks with ecancer at the 2017 St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference about nipple sparing mastectomy, a surgical technique which aims to maintain the nipple and areola in radical mastectomy patients. She describes the improved patient perceptions post-surgery, and that the technique is also applicable in risk-reducing mastectomy.

Dr Loibl speaks with ecancer at the 2017 St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference about ongoing trials of CDK 4/6 inhibitors to treat metastatic breast cancer.