Results from a large international study co-led by Charles Geyer concluded that adding ovarian suppression to adjuvant therapy with tamoxifen substantially reduced breast cancer recurrence in young, premenopausal women with hormone-sensitive early breast cancer who received chemotherapy because of a high risk for recurrence of their cancer. The practice-changing study was recently presented at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and published online in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

Massey doctors and scientists are making important discoveries involving cancer-fighting drugs recently approved by the FDA. Between August 2013 and July 2014, the FDA approved six new anticancer therapeutics, five of which target the unique molecular and genetic characteristics of an individual's cancer. During this period, the FDA also approved new uses for five previously approved anticancer therapeutics, two new uses for imaging agents and one new use for a screening test. 

Massey researchers Harry Bear and Charles Geyer are part of two international leadership teams recruiting subjects for phase 3 clinical trials testing novel breast cancer therapies. The first trial, known as KATHERINE, will test the efficacy and safety of a new antibody-drug conjugate, trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), in comparison to the standard FDA-approved drug Herceptin as adjuvant therapy for early stage HER2+ breast cancer patients.  The second trial, OlympiA, will test the efficacy of the drug olaparib as adjuvant therapy for high risk, triple negative breast cancer patients with inherited loss of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 cancer suppressor genes.