Management of Breast Cancer in the Elderly

Elderly breast cancer is rising. Increasing age is considered a risk factor for developing breast cancer. With older age generally defined as age ≥65, it estimated that nearly half of all new breast cancer diagnosis occurring in such age group.

Multiple studies documented that elderly breast cancer patients are treated differently.

Continue reading “Management of Breast Cancer in the Elderly”

Exercise and Breast Cancer

Exercise benefits in patients diagnosed with cancer are perhaps the least controversial subject in oncology yet it remains to be the most underutilized tool in the management of cancer patients. In this post, I will review recent publications showing the benefits of exercise in cancer patients in general and in breast cancer patients in particular. I will also attempt to provide practical recommendations for patients and clinicians to promote the idea of utilizing physical exercise.

Continue reading “Exercise and Breast Cancer”

Extended Therapy with Neratinib for HER2 Positive Breast Cancer

Neratinib is now approved for use in HER2 positive patients who completed their Trastuzumab-based therapy. This came following the publication of a phase 3 trial with the result indicating the benefit of Neratinib as compared to placebo. In the following blog post I will discuss the result of the ExteNET trial.

Continue reading “Extended Therapy with Neratinib for HER2 Positive Breast Cancer”

Micrometastases Mangement

Background: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is now the standard of care used in the staging of the regional lymph nodes in breast cancer. As result of the wide adoption of SLNB attention turned into a detailed examination of the biopsied lymph node(s) and subsequent rise in the incidence of finding lymph node micrometastases. Micrometastases(pN1mi) is defined as a metastatic disease in the lymph node that is less than 2.0 mm but larger than 0.2mm. Isolated tumor cells (ITC) is defined as a metastatic disease in the lymph node that is smaller or equal to 0.2mm. With the rise of incidence of axillary micrometastases, there is a considerable debate on the prognostic significance and appropriate treatment recommendations for such patients.

Continue reading “Micrometastases Mangement”