The following findings were presented at the 30th annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in San Antonio, Texas:

• Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif., said the first Phase III pivotal study in the denosumab oncology development program showed a positive effect on bone density across the skeleton in women with non-metastatic breast cancer who were receiving adjuvant aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy. Given as a twice-yearly subcutaneous injection in the HALT Breast Cancer 135 study, denosumab increased bone density worsened by AI therapy, including in highly cortical areas of the skeleton. In addition to increasing bone mineral density of the trabecular bone, denosumab showed increases in cortical bone.

• Cytori Therapeutics Inc., of San Diego, received results from an independent, investigator-sponsored study in Japan, in which adipose tissue-derived stem and regenerative cells were used for breast reconstruction following partial mastectomy. The procedure was found to be safe, with 79 percent patient satisfaction.

• Genomic Health Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., disclosed results from eight studies reinforcing the clinical utility of the company's Oncotype DX, a multigene expression test to predict the likelihood of recurrence and chemotherapy benefit for early-stage breast cancer patients.

• GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, cited positive results from the extension arm of a Phase II study on its first-in-class, oral small-molecule HER2 (ErbB2) kinase inhibitor Tykerb (lapatinib). In the study of 49 patients, the combination of Tykerb plus capecitabine showed a reduction in HER2-positive breast cancer that had spread to the brain and had progressed on Tykerb alone. Specifically, 20 percent of patients who received Tykerb plus capecitabine experienced at least a 50 percent volumetric reduction in measurable brain metastases; 37 percent of patients experienced a volumetric decrease that was greater than or equal to 20 percent.

• Incyte Corp., of Wilmington, Del., presented on the potential benefits of its selective sheddase inhibitor, INCB7839, in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.

• F. Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., of Nutley, N.J., said interim results of the Phase II XeNA trial suggested that the combination of its oral chemotherapy drug Xeloda and Taxotere, with the addition of Herceptin, in HER2-positive patients, may be an active and well-tolerated pre-surgical treatment option for women with invasive breast cancer. In the open-label trial conducted in 156 evaluable patients, promising results were achieved after four three-week cycles of pre-surgical treatment, compared to the standard eight cycles. A majority of the patients responded to the Xeloda-based therapy regardless of HER2 status, and both patient groups experienced a clinically significant reduction in tumor size and a clinically significant reduction in tumor size.