Novel strategies to improve the endocrine therapy of breast cancer

Endocrine therapy (ET) constitutes the usual first-line of therapy for patients in the treatment of metastatic hormone receptorpositive breast cancer. Unfortunately, not all patients respond to first-line endocrine treatment due to intrinsic resistance, while others may initially respond but eventually progress with secondary acquired resistance leading to disease progression. Mechanisms of resistance to anti-estrogen therapy include, loss of expression for estrogen or progesterone receptor, upregulation of epidermal receptor growth factor 2, increased receptor tyrosine kinase signaling, leading to activation of various intracellular pathways that are involved in signal transduction such as PI3K/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin, and others. Growing understanding of the signal cascade of estrogen receptors and the signaling pathways that interact with estrogen receptors has revealed the complex role of these receptors in cell growth and proliferation, and on the mechanism in development of resistance. These insights have led to the development of targeted therapies that may prove to be effective options for the treatment of breast cancer and may overcome hormone therapy resistance. In this review we summarize some of the mechanisms of endocrine resistance, selected clinical trials of ET and targeted therapies, which might interfere with estrogen receptor pathways and might reduce or reverse resistance to traditional, sequential, single-agent ET

The role of carboplatin in the neoadjuvant chemotherapy treatment of triple negative breast cancer

Triple negative breast (TNBC) cancer constitutes a heterogeneous group of disease with histologic and molecular differences. Complete pathologic response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in TNBC is associated with improved outcomes. Efforts have been made in identifying drug combinations that will increase the response rate to preoperative chemotherapy. In this review we present recent studies that have incorporated carboplatin (Cb) in the NACT of TNBC. We discuss the homologous recombination deficiency score and the somatic or germline mutation for BRCA as potential biomarkers for future selection of patients that could benefit from the addition of Cb to NACT

Making steps to decrease emergency room visits in patients with cancer: Our experience after participating in the ASCO Quality Training Program

51 Background: Overutilization of emergency room services by oncology patients is a known problem associated with increased admission rates and health care expenditure. A review of our oncology patients’ emergency room (ER) visits from January to May 2015 demonstrated that 48% of ER visits happened during office hours. Consequently a rapid cycle quality improvement project was developed with an aim to decrease ER visits by 30% by September 2015. Methods: A multidisciplinary team completed an action plan, starting with a project charter and definition of aim statement. A process map for patient scheduling/triage was created. A cause and effect diagram helped identify potential causes patient utilization of the ER. Diagnostic data were obtained querying our EMR (EPIC) for ER visits from January to May 2015. A Pareto chart identified Breast, Hematology and GI malignancies as main diagnosis utilizing the ER. Plan-do-study-act (PDSA) #1 began with development of a protocol to guide the handling of patients' calls that could previously resulted in an ER visit. Staff from the patient access center (PAC), a telephone operator service, and physicians’ offices were trained on its application. PDSA #2 focused on patient education to the importance of contacting the PAC for any concern or symptom related to active chemotherapy treatment. Results: The implementation of a triage system at our PAC resulted in a 60% decrease in the number of patients utilizing the ER, which met our goal. Patients’ calls to the PAC have increased. Two new materials were developed: a telephone triage form categorizing the patient’s complaint and the resulting action by our PAC center staff, and a patient Clinical Intervention Triage Tracking Log which allowed for the tracking of all patients triaged, their data, and the responsible team member. Conclusions: This study suggests that the development of a tool to properly identify and address emergent chemotherapy symptoms without utilizing the ER during working hours resulted in an intervention that positively affected the pre-specified endpoint

Characterization of first-line use of cyclin dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibitors in metastatic breast cancer among Florida health care systems

e19347 Background: First-line treatment with a CDK4/6 inhibitor in combination with an aromatase inhibitor for HR+/HER2- postmenopausal metastatic breast cancer (mBC) is considered standard of care based on the compelling data across all landmark trials. Commission on Cancer (CoC) as well as the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI) describe standards for cancer care; some of which include utilizing data for continuous quality improvement as well as using nationally recognized guidelines to drive treatment selection. Reducing unwarranted variations in care through tracking and reporting adherence to nationally-recognized guidelines can be one way to focus on improving quality metrics. We evaluate first-line real-world treatment patterns of HR+/HER2- mBC patients in three health care systems in south Florida and compare with national standards. Methods: A retrospective analysis utilizing pharmacy and medical claims data (commercial and governmental payers) was performed. The data source was the IQVIA anonymized patient longitudinal open claims data for patients treated at the south Florida health systems. Patients age ≥18 years with HR+/HER2- mBC were included. First-line treatment was defined as the first claim for a medication after the mBC diagnosis. Results: Characterization of treatment patterns in three cancer centers in south Florida showed an increased utilization of CDK4/6 inhibitors as compared to the national average across all groups (see table). Conclusions: These data provide a baseline assessment of the utilization of CDK4/6 inhibitors in the first-line treatment of HR+/HER2- mBC. These data are reassuring with respect to the appropriate treatment in south Florida patients. However, we anticipate that treatment patterns may vary in other geographic areas given the national data trends. We would recommend this data be evaluated in other systems to identify potential areas of improvement. Limitations of this evaluation are consistent with any methodology using claims data which include possible coding errors and missing data which may or may not be systematic. [Table: see text