ESMO 2025
Research Highlights for Breast Cancer
One of our BCRC-WA oncologists, Dr Peter Lau, recently attended the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2025 in Berlin to bring home the latest international breakthroughs in breast cancer treatment. This world-leading conference showcases data that shapes global standards of care and ensures our clinicians can provide the most advanced, evidence-based treatment options to our community.
Here are some of the most important updates from this year’s meeting:
Enhertu Shows Major Promise in Early-Stage HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
Two key studies, DESTINY Breast11 and DESTINY Breast05, reinforced Enhertu (T DXD) as an important emerging treatment for early stage HER2 positive breast cancer.
In DESTINY Breast11, Enhertu combined with THP before surgery led to a higher pathologic complete response (67 percent vs 53 percent) and fewer severe side effects compared to the standard AC plus THP regimen. This suggests Enhertu may become a future standard pre surgery option.
In DESTINY Breast05, Enhertu also outperformed Kadcyla for patients with residual disease after neoadjuvant therapy. After three years, 92 percent of patients on Enhertu remained recurrence free, compared with 83.5% on Kadcyla, strengthening its role across multiple stages of HER2 positive disease.
Trodelvy Positioned as a Potential New First-Line Treatment for Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
The ASCENT-03 study delivered encouraging results for people with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) who are not eligible for immunotherapy.
Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy):
- Improved progression-free survival by three months compared with standard chemotherapy
- Marked a meaningful improvement published in The New England Journal of Medicine
While Trodelvy is not yet approved as a first-line treatment, experts at ESMO say these results position it as a strong potential new standard of care for this group.
Positive News for Fertility: Pausing Hormonal Therapy for Pregnancy Shown to Be Safe
Long-term follow-up from the POSITIVE trial reaffirmed that younger women with early-stage, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer can safely pause hormonal therapy to attempt pregnancy.
Key findings:
- Recurrence rates were similar to women who stayed on five full years of hormonal therapy
- 69% of participants had one or more healthy children
This provides reassuring, real-world evidence for women hoping to balance cancer treatment with future family planning.
NATALEE Trial 5-Year Data Reinforces Ribociclib as a Game-Changer in Early HR+/HER2– Breast Cancer
The highly anticipated five-year results from the NATALEE trial showed that adjuvant ribociclib (RIB) combined with a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor (NSAI):
- Significantly improves invasive disease-free survival (iDFS)
- Shows sustained benefit across patient subgroups
- Continues to demonstrate a favourable long-term safety profile
- Suggests a positive trend toward improved overall survival
This reinforces ribociclib’s role as a major step forward in reducing recurrence risk for early-stage hormone receptor–positive breast cancer.
”ESMO Berlin was a terrific conference and a great opportunity to learn the latest breast cancer treatments and trials. These updates help us continue to bring the most cutting edge treatment options to our patients.
Dr Peter LauMedical Oncologist
