Patients with these more aggressive breast cancer subtypes – the HER2-overexpressing and triple-negative forms of the disease – were also at particularly high risk for more advanced stage CBC. Their CBCs were greater than three times more likely to be at a regional or distant stage at diagnosis than those occurring in patients with ER-positive/HER2-positive primary breast cancer (Breast Cancer Res. Treat. 2012;135:849-55).
Dr. Li closed by noting that the growing problem of CBC is finally receiving extra attention from funding agencies. A new Consortium of CBC has been created, enabling investigators from 28 different CBC studies to interact more closely. The consortium is led by physicians at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and at Fred Hutchinson.
The National Cancer Institute recently approved funding for a new population-based case-control study focusing on second primary cancers. It will include 700 controls with only a single breast cancer diagnosis along with 600 women with a second primary cancer of the lung, 600 with CBC, 350 with a second primary colorectal cancer, and another 350 with a second primary in the endometrium. The study will look in-depth at risk factors, treatments, and clinical and molecular characteristics and their impact on second primary cancers in breast cancer patients.
“We really hope through this study to move the field forward,” Dr. Li said.
His studies have been funded by the National Institutes of Health. He reported having no financial conflicts.