Systemic Therapy for Advanced HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Guideline Update

An interview with Dr. Sharon Giordano from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, and Dr. Nancy Davidson from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, co-chairs on "Systemic Therapy for Advanced HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: ASCO Guideline Update." This guideline updates recommendations on systemic therapies for advanced HER2-positive breast cancer, focusing on second-line, third-line, and greater treatment. Read the full guideline.

TRANSCRIPT

Brittany Harvey: Hello and welcome to the ASCO Guidelines Podcast series brought to you by the ASCO Podcast Network, a collection of nine programs covering a range of educational and scientific content and offering enriching insight into the world of cancer care. You can find all the shows, including this one at asco.org/podcasts.

My name is Brittany Harvey and today I'm interviewing Dr. Sharon Giordano from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, and Dr. Nancy Davidson from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, co-chairs on 'Systemic Therapy for Advanced Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Positive Breast Cancer: ASCO Guideline Update'. Thank you for being here. Dr. Giordano and Dr. Davidson.

Dr. Sharon Giordano: Thank you.

Dr. Nancy Davidson: Thank you for having us.

Brittany Harvey: First, I'd like to note that ASCO takes great care in the development of its guidelines and ensuring that the ASCO conflict of interest policy is followed for each guideline. The full conflict of interest information for this guideline panel is available online with the publication of the guideline in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Giordano, do you have any relevant disclosures that are directly related to this guideline topic?

Dr. Sharon Giordano: No, I do not.

Brittany Harvey: Thank you. And Dr. Davidson, do you have any relevant disclosures that are directly related to this guideline topic?

Dr. Nancy Davidson: No, I do not.

Brittany Harvey: Thank you. Let's talk about the content of this guideline update. So first, Dr. Giordano, what prompted an update to this guideline on the systemic therapy for advanced HER2-positive breast cancer, and what is the focus of this update?

Dr. Sharon Giordano: So, we were prompted to update the guidelines for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer because several new studies have been presented and published, which are really changing our standard of care approaches.

We have new therapies and new combinations that have resulted in improvements in progression-free survival and in overall survival for this patient population. Given the clinical importance of these new studies, we felt that an update of the treatment guidelines was clearly needed. Overall, the focus of our update is really in the title, so, it's systemic therapies for advanced HER2-positive breast cancer. And specifically, what we're focusing on is updating the recommendation for second-line therapy, and then adding multiple new options for systemic therapies for third-line and greater treatment.

Brittany Harvey: Great. Thank you for that overview. So, then I'd like to review the updated recommendations of this guideline for our listeners. Starting with, Dr. Davidson, what is recommended for first-line therapy for patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer?

Dr. Nancy Davidson: So, that was the part of this guideline that really did not change. In the previous iteration and in the current iteration, we felt that the evidence suggested that a combination of trastuzumab and a taxane should be the first-line treatment for individuals with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer unless they have some sort of contraindication to the taxanes.

Now, the evidenc