EDITOR
Neil Love, MD
FACULTY
Eric P Winer, MD
COMMUNITY ONCOLOGIST
Michael A Schwartz, MD
Case 1
A woman with triple-negative breast cancer who had received
prior adjuvant chemotherapy. She developed symptomatic
pulmonary metastases and was treated with carboplatin/
gemcitabine and bevacizumab. She had rapid improvement in
symptomatology but developed dermatomyositis.
Case 2
A woman with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer and
extensive postmastectomy chest wall recurrence who received
several trastuzumab-based regimens followed by lapatinib and
capecitabine. Capecitabine was discontinued due to toxicity, and
she has been receiving single-agent lapatinib for 14 months.
Case 3
A 42-year-old woman who presented 14 years ago with ER-positive,
PR-positive, node-positive, Grade II invasive ductal cancer. She
had a mastectomy and received four cycles of adjuvant AC. Five
years after her diagnosis, she had her second child. In 2006, she
had an elevated CA27.29, and a PET scan revealed metastatic
disease that was not accessible for biopsy. She was treated with
an aromatase inhibitor and goserelin.
Case 4
A woman with symptomatic, ER-positive, HER2-positive
metastatic breast cancer who was treated with multiple
trastuzumab-containing regimens. She had preexisting dementia
and now has progressive brain metastases after radiosurgery.
Case 5
A woman with triple-negative breast cancer presented with
sternal, lung and liver metastases. She was enrolled on a clinical
trial and was randomly assigned to receive bevacizumab in
combination with weekly paclitaxel.
Case 6
A woman who initially presented with a 7-cm, ER-positive,
PR-positive, HER2-negative, poorly differentiated breast tumor
with bone and liver metastases. She received exemestane and
zoledronic acid. After eight months, she had disease progression
in the bone. She was started on fulvestrant and underwent
mastectomy. She did not respond to fulvestrant and was enrolled
in a clinical trial in which she was randomly assigned to receive
paclitaxel and bevacizumab.
