Welcome To This Breast Cancer Update Think Tank Presentation

This is medical oncologist Dr Neil Love. In January of this year, our CME group in Miami hosted another adventure in oncology education, this time a Breast Cancer Update Think Tank with 11 clinical investigators who spent the day discussing and debating the most controversial issues in breast cancer management.

In the middle of this fascinating day, pathologist Dr Soon Paik from the NSABP delivered a presentation that got everyone’s attention. Last year at the 2007 ASCO meeting, Dr Paik initially presented data from the NSABP-B-31 adjuvant trastuzumab study and reported that unlike ER, where there seems to be a correlation between the amount of estrogen receptor and benefit from endocrine therapy, in the NSABP study there was no correlation between the degree of FISH amplification of HER2 and benefit of adjuvant trastuzumab.

Even more interesting was that there was a modest number of patients who, on central testing in Dr Paik’s lab, were found to have HER2-negative tumors. These patients experienced the same apparent benefit from trastuzumab as patients with HER2-positive tumors.

Subsequently, in December at the 2007 San Antonio Symposium, additional data related to this question were presented by the NCCTG adjuvant trial as well as the HERA European study of adjuvant trastuzumab.

The subsequent discussion after Dr Paik’s presentation at the Think Tank was lively and fascinating, and we’ve provided to you a number of formats to choose to read, listen or watch both Dr Paik’s presentation as well as the Think Tank reaction.