Debu Tripathy, MD, Chair of Breast Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses how nurses can encourage compliance and adherence for patients with breast cancer.

There are many reasons for patient non-adherence to hormone therapy; it is not just because of side effect burden. Tripathy suggests careful counseling from nurses so that patients can get a full understanding of the treatment. Using a full team approach to care with active communication is key.

Videos

Debu Tripathy discuss how to encouragecompliance and adherence for patients with breast cancer who are receiving hormone therapy.

Debu Tripathy on Hormone Therapy Compliance in Patients with Breast Cancer

Debu Tripathy, MD, Chair of Breast Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the important points for nurses to keep in mind when managing patients with breast cancer who are taking oral oncolytics.

The oral agents such as palbociclib (Ibrance) and everolimus (Afinitor) can come with side effects that cause patients to discontinue treatment. These are side effects such as mouth ulcers, with everolimus, and fatigue, with palbociclib. Nurses can be sure to anticipate these side effects, educate the patients on the possibilities, and monitor patients closely throughout treatment.

Debu Tripathy on the management of patients with breast cancer on oral oncolytics.

Debu Tripathy on Monitoring Patients with Breast Cancer on Oral Oncolytics

Debu Tripathy, MD, chair of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, talks about current treatments to help prevent recurrence in patients with early-stage breast cancer.

Early-stage breast cancer is often very curable with surgery, but there are still instances of recurrence. To lower the risk, chemotherapy and hormonal drugs can be used. For patients with HER2+ breast cancer, there are the antibodies, trastuzimab (Herceptin) and pertuzumab (Perjeta).

Dr. Debu Tripathy discusses the common treatments to help prevent recurrence of early stage breast cancer.

Depu Tripathy on Lower Risk for Recurrence of Early Stage Breast Cancer

Debu Tripathy, MD, chair of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the potential for using breast cancer tumor DNA to make treatment decisions.

Researchers and oncologists have not been able to look at breast cancer tumor DNA to help determine if a certain treatment will work better than another, as they do for other diseases, such as lung cancer. But for breast cancer, Tripathy says, progress is needed.

Debu Tripathy, MD, chair of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the potential for using breast cancer tumor DNA to make treatment decisions. 

Debu Tripathy on Using Breast Cancer Tumor DNA to Make Treatment Decisions

Debu Tripathy, MD, chair of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses genetic risk for breast cancer, the strongest factor in determining if an individual will develop the disease. 

Tripathy emphasizes that patients with a strong family history or who develop breast cancer at a young age should be tested for gene mutations linked to breast cancer, such as 

 . However, despite an increasing ability to detect these mutations due to improvements in DNA sequencing, Tripathy says that doctors should not over-test people that don’t need it, as the results may be hard to interpret. 

Debu Tripathy, MD, chair of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses genetic risk for breast cancer, the strongest factor in determining if an individual will develop the disease. 


Debu Tripathy on Genetic Risks for Breast Cancer

Debu Tripathy, MD, chair, Department of Breast Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses hormonal therapy for advanced and early-stage breast cancer.

About two-thirds of all breast cancers make hormone receptors, which can cause changes in the expression of genes and lead to cell growth. Hormone therapy interrupts the hormone action and slows or stops the growth of hormone-sensitive tumors.

Hormone therapy can put patients with advanced breast cancer into remission or keep their disease from progressing for years, Tripathy says.

In early-stage breast cancers, hormone therapy can help prevent metastatic recurrences.

Tamoxifen is typically used for premenopausal patients with breast cancer and aromatase inhibitors are used for postmenopausal patients. Tripathy says that patients at higher risk seem to benefit from longer durations of hormonal therapy.

Debu Tripathy on Hormonal Therapy for Breast Cancer

Debu Tripathy, MD, chair of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the development of palbociclib (Ibrance) in breast cancer.

Debu Tripathy, MD