SUMMARY
ASCO 2024 was, as usual, an important meeting for the oncology community.
Therapeutic innovations such as antibody-drug conjugates, new immunotherapy approaches and molecular targeted therapies were the basis of many presentations changing clinical practice or clinically of interest. In addition, cancer biology understanding, artificial intelligence and Telehealth were also on the menu.
This article summarises important reports from the breast cancer field. The basis of the selection is the following:
- Practice-changing abstracts,
- Clinically meaningful abstracts, and
- Abstracts paving the way for progress.
This review will be divided into three categories:
- Therapeutic innovations that influence outcome,
- Escalation/de-escalation therapeutic strategies involving systemic therapies as well as loco-regional approaches, and
- More precision in using «older» agents such as carboplatin or anthracycline.
To facilitate the reading, the classical molecular subdivision of breast cancer from luminal disease to triplenegative breast cancer to the HER2 molecular subtype was followed. With the development of the group of HER2 disease called HER2 low/ultra-low expressors, in which trastuzumab deruxtecan showed significant antitumour activity, the original molecular subtyping in three different subgroups is currently not so sharp.
(Belg J Med Oncol 2024;18(5):191–4)
