IOncology

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy among women worldwide, and its management has fully entered the era of precision medicine driven by molecular subtyping. Compared with Western populations, Chinese patients tend to develop breast cancer at a younger age and often present with higher-risk disease. Combined with China's large patient population, these characteristics place increasing demands on the efficiency, standardization, and precision of breast pathology.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains one of the most aggressive breast cancer subtypes due to the absence of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2 expression, leaving patients without effective endocrine or anti-HER2 targeted therapies. Among its molecular subtypes, basal-like immune-suppressed (BLIS) TNBC is particularly challenging because of its highly invasive biology, immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, poor response to immunotherapy, and limited treatment options after disease progression.

Breast cancer remains one of the most significant public health challenges affecting women worldwide. Improving prevention and treatment, strengthening international scientific collaboration, and promoting the global exchange of clinical knowledge are shared priorities across the oncology community.

At the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting, Jian Zhang and colleagues from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center presented several impactful studies spanning supportive care, targeted therapy, and prognostic modeling.

Neoadjuvant immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy has become the standard of care for operable triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), yet patients with high-risk features—particularly node-positive disease—continue to face a substantial risk of recurrence. To further improve outcomes, investigators are exploring whether adding radiotherapy during the neoadjuvant phase can enhance antitumor immunity.

Neoadjuvant treatment for operable HER2-negative breast cancer remains a major clinical challenge. The emergence of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), particularly trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd), is reshaping traditional treatment paradigms while raising new questions about patient selection and optimal therapeutic strategies.

At ASCO 2026, investigators presented the pre-specified menopausal subgroup analysis from the lidERA BC trial. Compared with standard endocrine therapy, the oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) giredestrant reduced the risk of distant recurrence by 42% in premenopausal women with HR+/HER2− early breast cancer (HR=0.58), while also reducing the risk by 24% in postmenopausal patients (HR=0.76). These findings offer renewed optimism for adjuvant endocrine therapy, an area that has seen few major advances over the past decade.

At the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, Zhenzhen Liu and colleagues from Henan Cancer Hospital presented four studies from the HELEN clinical research program (Abstracts #1009, #509, #1054, and #609), spanning key breast cancer subtypes including triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), HER2-positive disease, and HR+/HER2+ breast cancer.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive disease with a poor prognosis, making it essential to improve the efficacy of neoadjuvant therapy while minimizing treatment-related toxicity. At the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, Xiaowei Qi and colleagues from Southwest Hospital, Army Medical University presented the latest results from the NeoTAPPL study (Abstract #600).

At the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, held from May 29 to June 2 in Chicago, USA, results from the IRIS-A study (Abstract #508) were presented during the Rapid Oral Abstract Session on Local, Regional, and Adjuvant Breast Cancer.