The phase III OPTIMA trial, presented at this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, showed that some patients with high-risk, early-stage, estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer may be able to avoid chemotherapy based on genomic testing, without compromising outcomes.
MedPage Today brought together three expert leaders in the field: Moderator Hope S. Rugo, MD, of the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California, is joined by William J. Gradishar, MD, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and Paolo Tarantino, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, for a virtual roundtable discussion. This first of four exclusive episodes focuses on the OPTIMA trial results.
Following is a transcript of their remarks:
Rugo: Hello and welcome to MedPage Today and our review of the most recent and clinically important updates from ASCO 2026. We're just going to cover a few controversial topics. Having just come back from ASCO, I think this is the perfect time to talk with our smart colleagues to figure out how they would interpret this data and place it into clinical context. I'm Hope Rugo from the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center. I'm joined by Paolo Tarantino and Bill Gradishar. Please introduce yourselves.
