Preeti Subhedar and Lauren Postlewait represent Emory at ASBrS meeting
APRIL 2022
Emory breast surgical oncologists Preeti D. Subhedar, MD, and Lauren M. Postlewait, MD, were notably acknowledged at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in Las Vegas, April 6-10.
Dr. Postlewait was a co-author of "The role of mastectomy in de novo stage IV inflammatory breast cancer," published in Annals of Surgical Oncology, which was selected as one of the best papers of 2021. The study evaluated the role and impact of modified radical mastectomy (MRM) in patients with de novo stage IV inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). Demographic, clinicopathologic, and treatment factors were compared; local-regional recurrence patterns described; and survival analyses conducted in the study's patient cohort.
Dr. Postlewait and her co-investigators concluded that MRM in de novo stage IV IBC patients is an independent factor associated with improved overall survival, and that additional prospective randomized trials evaluating possible survival benefits of MRM in de novo stage IV IBC patients were needed.
Dr. Subhedar, medical director of the Comprehensive Center for Breast Health at Grady Memorial Hospital, presented "Racial considerations in recurrence score interpretation" at the meeting's inaugural panel session dedicated to mitigating disparities in medicine.
Her presentation emphasized that the positive side of the increased use of genomic assays over the last two decades, in that they provide a more nuanced approach to systemic therapy treatment decisions, needed to be balanced with the fact that they have developed in a homogenous Caucasian patient population. She advised that alleviating this issue would require further clarification of the prognostic accuracy of the assays in certain minority patients.