E. de Azambuja MD, PhD

Breast cancer and pregnancy-related issues

Summary

Breast cancer and pregnancy-related issues are important areas of concern for young women. Prior pregnancies and breastfeeding may impact the risk of developing breast cancer and its biologic features. Nowadays, thanks to major advances in oncology practice, breast cancer patients have excellent survival outcomes; hence, survivorship issues including the possibility to constitute a family after treatment are of crucial importance. Furthermore, considering the current trend of delaying childbearing, an increased awareness should be paid towards the possibility of breast cancer diagnosis during pregnancy. Despite increased amounts of data available and consensus guidelines having been published on these topics, it should be noted that current recommendations rely on limited evidence. Hence, further research efforts are needed to obtain more conclusive considerations in this regard.

This review article focuses on the link between reproductive behaviour, infertility treatments and the risk of developing breast cancer, the management of patients diagnosed with breast tumour during pregnancy, as well as the concerns of a pregnancy in survivors with prior history of breast malignancy.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2018;12(1):9–14)

Quality management for systemic treatment of breast cancer

Summary

Limited literature is available about quality management in systemic treatment of breast cancer patients. Professionals are the key players in the identification and interpretation of quality indicators. The Belgian Society of Medical Oncology takes the lead in the field of quality management of systemic treatment for cancer, especially breast cancer. A narrow collaboration with the Belgian Cancer Registry will allow benchmarking. The results will be presented and discussed between peers of the society. This should lead to better outcomes for all Belgian centres. All Belgian Society of Medical Oncology members are called for active participation

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2018;12(1):15–21)

Systemic chemotherapy regimens in early breast cancer patients: updated recommendations from the BSMO breast cancer task force

SUMMARY

Since the publication from the Belgian Society of Medical Oncology breast cancer task force in 2014 in the Belgian Journal of Medical Oncology, new information has become available on optimal chemotherapy regimens for early breast cancer patients. On February 24^th, 2017, 37 medical oncologists involved in breast cancer management reviewed the most important scientific data on this topic. The authors of this paper summarised the findings, and sent a questionnaire to the members asking for their input. This paper summarises the consensus of this exercise.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2017;11(8):375–379)

What is your diagnosis?

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2014;8(1):21–2)

Belgian Society of Medical Oncology (BSMO) task force on breast cancer survivorship

Summary

Advances in screening, diagnostic procedures, surgical techniques, knowledge about molecular pathways and targets, and new treatment options have substantially improved the outcome of breast cancer patients. Care for breast cancer survivors has thus become an essential part of care for breast cancer patients. Therefore, the Belgian Society of Medical Oncology set-up a task force charged with developing guidance on issues important for breast cancer patients who have completed their primary treatment.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2013;7(5):142–55)

Impressive response to eribulin in endocrine- and chemotherapy-resistant metastatic breast cancer

Summary

We present the case of an 81-year-old woman with a past history of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer of the left breast, who underwent mastectomy followed by radiotherapy in 1989 and who was treated with five years of adjuvant tamoxifen. Ten years later she experienced a local relapse and was treated with different lines of endocrine and chemotherapy without any success. After discussion of her case in a multidisciplinary team, eribulin was proposed. Eribulin is a new type of microtubule dynamics inhibitor and is a synthetic analogue of halichondrin B, which was isolated from a marine sponge. It has been tested in patients with locally recurrent or metastatic disease and has shown a survival benefit when compared to treatment of physician’s choice (TPC; any single-agent chemotherapy or hormonal or biological treatment approved for the treatment of cancer, radiotherapy or symptomatic treatment). In the international Phase III Eisai Metastatic Breast Cancer Study Assessing Physician’s Choice Versus Eribulin (EMBRACE) trial. The total median overall survival for women treated with eribulin was 13.1 months compared to 10.7 months for TPC. These results could potentially establish eribulin as a new treatment standard for this particular group of patients.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2013;7:27–30)