SABCS: Breast Cancer Receptors Affect Survival

Estrogen/progesterone receptor-negative tumors linked to poor outcomes in patients with brain metasases

MONDAY, Dec. 17 (HealthDay News) -- In women whose primary breast cancer has spread to the brain, survival times are considerably shorter in those who have triple negative tumors with no HER2 growth factors or estrogen or progesterone receptors, and also in those with HER2 positive cancers that are also estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor-negative, according to two studies presented this week at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Stephanie Hines, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., and colleagues assessed molecular markers in 106 primary breast cancer patients who later developed brain metastases, including 23 who had triple negative tumors. The researchers found that triple negative patients had a significantly shorter median survival from diagnosis to death than other patients and concluded that novel strategies are needed to improve and prolong the lives of triple negative patients.

Laura Vallow, M.D., also of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, and colleagues assessed molecular markers in 83 patients who later developed brain metastases, including 39 with HER-2 positive tumors. The researchers found that HER-2 positive patients who had estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor-negative tumors had a significantly shorter median survival from initial diagnosis to death than HER-2 positive patients who had estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor-positive tumors (17.5 months versus 55 months, respectively).

"This confirms the need for novel treatment strategies for HER-2 positive, estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor negative patients and emphasizes the survival difference in HER-2 positive patients depending on their estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor status," Vallow and colleagues conclude.

Abstract-Hines
Abstract-Vallow

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