AACR 2019: Primary Tumor Surgery for Advanced HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
Posted: Friday, April 19, 2019
According to a study by Sharon S. Lum, MD, of the Loma Linda University School of Medicine, California, and colleagues, patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who had primary tumor surgery had better survival outcomes than patients who did not have surgery. The results were presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in Atlanta (Abstract 4873/17).
“This suggests that, in addition to standard HER- targeted medications and other adjuvant therapy, if a woman has stage IV HER2-positive breast cancer, surgery to remove the primary breast tumor should be considered,” said Dr. Lum at a median briefing at the AACR meeting.
Using data from 2010 to 2012 from the National Cancer Database, they conducted a retrospective cohort study of 3,231 women with HER2-positive stage IV breast cancer. A total of 71.3% were non-Hispanic white, 18.4% were non-Hispanic black, and 5.8% were Hispanic. Those who received chemotherapy or targeted therapies made up 89.4% of the group, whereas 37.7% underwent endocrine therapy and 31.8% had radiation therapy. A total of 1,130 patients had primary-site surgery and 2,101 did not.
With a median follow-up of 21.2 months, the investigators found an association between women who had surgery and improved overall survival. There were also factors linked with being more likely to have surgery, such as having private or government insurance compared with not having insurance or being on Medicaid. Additionally, white women seemed to be more likely than non-Hispanic black women to have this surgery.
“If breast surgery is to be considered by patients and providers when deciding treatment strategy, it will be imperative to address significant disparities among patients who are offered surgical therapy,” the investigators concluded.
Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.
