Several new systemic therapy options have become available for patients with metastatic breast cancer, which have led to improvements in survival. In addition to patient and clinical factors, the treatment selection primarily depends on the tumor biology (hormone-receptor status and HER2-status). The NCCN Guidelines specific to the workup and treatment of patients with recurrent/stage IV breast cancer are discussed in this article.

Importance Time to surgery (TTS) is of concern to patients and clinicians, but controversy surrounds its impact on breast cancer survival. There remains little national data evaluating the association. Objective To investigate the relationship between the time from diagnosis to breast cancer surgery and survival, using separate analyses of two of the largest cancer databases in the United States. Design Two independent population-based studies of prospectively-collected national data utilizing the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)-Medicare-linked database (SMDB), and the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Setting The SMDB cohort included Medicare patients >65 years of age, and the NCDB cohort included patients cared for at Commission on Cancer-accredited facilities throughout the United States. Each analysis assessed overall survival as a function of time between diagnosis and surgery by evaluating intervals encompassing ≤30, 31–60, 61–90, 91–120, and 121–180 days in length, and disease-specific survival at 60-day intervals. Participants All patients were diagnosed with noninflammatory, nonmetastatic, invasive breast cancer and underwent surgery as initial treatment. Main Outcomes and Measures Overall and disease-specific survival as a function of time between diagnosis and surgery, after adjusting for patient, demographic and tumor-related factors. Results The SMDB cohort had 94,544 patients ≥66 years old, diagnosed 1992 – 2009. With each interval delay increase, overall survival was lower overall (hazard ratio [HR] 1.09, p<0.001), and in stage I (HR 1.13, p<0.001) and II (HR 1.06, p=0.010) patients. Breast cancer-specific mortality increased with each 60-d interval (subhazard ratio [sHR] 1.26, p= 0.03). The NCDB study evaluated 115,790 patients ≥18 years old, diagnosed 2003 – 2005. The overall mortality HR was 1.10 (p<0.001) for each increasing interval, significant in stages I (HR 1.16, p<0.001) and II (1.09, p<0.001) only, adjusting for demographic, tumor and treatment factors. Conclusions and Relevance Greater TTS confers lower overall and disease-specific survival, and a shortened delay is associated with benefits comparable to some standard therapies. Although time is required for preoperative evaluation and consideration of some options such as reconstruction, efforts to reduce TTS should be pursued where possible to enhance survival.

These NCCN Guidelines Insights highlight the important updates/changes to the surgical axillary staging, radiation therapy, and systemic therapy recommendations for hormone receptor-positive disease in the 1.2017 version of the NCCN Guidelines for Breast Cancer. This report summarizes these updates and discusses the rationale behind them. Updates on new drug approvals, not available at press time, can be found in the most recent version of these guidelines at NCCN.org.

The therapeutic options for patients with noninvasive or invasive breast cancer are complex and varied. These NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines for Breast Cancer include recommendations for clinical management of patients with carcinoma in situ, invasive breast cancer, Paget disease, phyllodes tumor, inflammatory breast cancer, and management of breast cancer during pregnancy. The content featured in this issue focuses on the recommendations for overall management of ductal carcinoma in situ and the workup and locoregional management of early stage invasive breast cancer. For the full version of the NCCN Guidelines for Breast Cancer, visit NCCN.org.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women in the United States and is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death. The overall management of breast cancer includes the treatment of local disease with surgery, radiation therapy, or both, and the treatment of systemic disease with cytotoxic chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, biologic therapy, or combinations of these. This article outlines the NCCN Guidelines specific to breast cancer that is locoregional (restricted to one region of the body), and discusses the management of clinical stage I, II, and IIIA (T3N1M0) tumors. For NCCN Guidelines on systemic adjuvant therapy after locoregional management of clinical stage I, II and IIIA (T3N1M0) and for management for other clinical stages of breast cancer, see the complete version of these guidelines at NCCN.org.