Dr. Ellis on Potential Impact of CDK4/6 Inhibitors in Breast Cancer

Matthew Ellis, MD, PhD, director, Smith Breast Center, Baylor College of Medicine, discusses questions regarding the impact of CDK4/6 inhibitors in breast cancer.

In metastatic disease, the addition of a CDK4/6 inhibitor has shown a benefit in delaying disease progression in trials. But, Ellis adds, the question that remains is do these drugs—ribociclib (Kisqali), palbociclib (Ibrance), and abemaciclib—improve overall survival.

Another question is whether these drugs will improve outcome in early disease. Not all patients benefit from CDK4/6 inhibitors, and other avenues such as neoadjuvant endocrine therapy or genomic models may be more beneficial for that subset.

According to Ellis, current trials are too immature to give definite answers to these questions.

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