Adam Brufsky, MD, PhD, FACP, is Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and also serves as the Associate Division Chief for the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine. Dr. Brufsky is the Medical Director of the Women’s Cancer Center at Magee-Women’s Hospital of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI); Associate Director for clinical investigations at UPCI; and Codirector of the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Center.
Dr. Brufsky is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology. He earned his medical degree and doctor of philosophy from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in Farmington, Connecticut, completed a residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and a fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, both located in Boston, Massachusetts.
Dr. Brufsky is a member of several professional organizations, such as the American Medical Association, the Massachusetts Medical Society, the American College of Physicians, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. An active researcher, he has published numerous abstracts and research articles in leading journals, and is principal investigator on a number of research grants funded by the National Institutes of Health, Susan G. Komen Foundation, and US Army-Breast Cancer Research Program.
FACULTY DISCLOSURE
Adam Brufsky, MD, PhD, FACP, has served as a consultant for Genetech/Roche.
Molecular Therapy of Breast Cancer For Palliation and Clinical Benefit
Abstract
Many new molecular and antibody therapies exist for metastatic breast cancer with the potential to improve progression-free and overall survival. What is also clear, but not widely discussed, is that many of these therapies can provide significant palliation of some of the most severe symptoms of metastatic breast cancer with little if any systemic toxicity. This potentially allows some of these therapies to be used in clinical scenarios where the initial performance status of the patient is less than optimal, and also where symptomatic palliation is a primary goal. This presentation will summarize some of the most current molecular and antibody therapies for metastatic breast cancer in 2014, with an emphasis on how these therapies can provide substantial symptomatic palliation and improvements in quality of life at any time during the course of metastatic breast cancer.
