Background: The randomized, double-blind OlympiA trial compared 1 year of the oral poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase inhibitor, olaparib, to matching placebo as adjuvant therapy for ...patients with pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 (gBRCA1/2pv) and high-risk, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative, early breast cancer (EBC). The first pre-specified interim analysis (IA) previously demonstrated statistically significant improvement in invasive disease-free survival (IDFS) and distant disease-free survival (DDFS). The olaparib group had fewer deaths than the placebo group, but the difference did not reach statistical significance for overall survival (OS). We now report the pre-specified second IA of OS with updates of IDFS, DDFS, and safety. Patients and methods: One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six patients were randomly assigned to olaparib or placebo following (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy if indicated. Endocrine therapy was given concurrently with study medication for hormone receptor-positive cancers. Statistical significance for OS at this IA required P < 0.015. Results: With a median follow-up of 3.5 years, the second IA of OS demonstrated significant improvement in the olaparib group relative to the placebo group hazard ratio 0.68; 98.5% confidence interval (CI) 0.47-0.97; P = 0.009. Four-year OS was 89.8% in the olaparib group and 86.4% in the placebo group (Delta 3.4%, 95% CI -0.1% to 6.8%). Four-year IDFS for the olaparib group versus placebo group was 82.7% versus 75.4% (Delta 7.3%, 95% CI 3.0% to 11.5%) and 4-year DDFS was 86.5% versus 79.1% (Delta 7.4%, 95% CI 3.6% to 11.3%), respectively. Subset analyses for OS, IDFS, and DDFS demonstrated benefit across major subgroups. No new safety signals were identified including no new cases of acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome. Conclusion: With 35 years of median follow-up, OlympiA demonstrates statistically significant improvement in OS with adjuvant olaparib compared with placebo for gBRCA1/2pv-associated EBC and maintained improvements in the previously reported, statistically significant endpoints of IDES and DDFS with no new safety signals.
The fate of monoclonal anti-vasopressin antibodies (VP-MAbs) injected in vivo into the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the rat brain was studied by immunocytochemistry. Depending on the post ...survival time, VP-MAbs contained in an ascites fluid were stained at different levels of the VP neurons: the cytoplasm of the PVN neurons, the fibres of the median eminence and the granular layer of the Gyrus Dentatus. The identification of endogenous peptides synthesized by PVN neurons showed that the VP-MAbs uptake was specific: it did not appear either in the oxytocinergic neurons or in the non immunoreactive neurons of the Brattleboro rat brain, this rat being genetically incapable of synthesizing central VP. Conversely, VP-MAbs only penetrated into the VP neurons: ascites fluid containing monoclonal antibodies prepared against bovine thyroglobulin (the carrier conjugated to VP in our immunizations) was neither stained in magnocellular neurons nor carried in nerve fibres. The neuronal uptake and transport of VP-MAbs occurred in vivo: they were totally inhibited by heating of the ascites fluid at 56 degrees C for 30 min; this treatment did not alter the VP-MAbs themselves but probably destroyed some thermic sensitive component essential to the macromolecule internalization. The biological effects of antibodies injected in vivo have been reported. The results described here suggest that some specific antibodies passively transferred into the brain could act directly on the peptide synthesis recognized by the antibodies.
Pertuzumab increases the rate of pathological complete response in the preoperative context and increases overall survival among patients with metastatic disease when it is added to trastuzumab and ...chemotherapy for the treatment of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer. In this trial, we investigated whether pertuzumab, when added to adjuvant trastuzumab and chemotherapy, improves outcomes among patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.
We randomly assigned patients with node-positive or high-risk node-negative HER2-positive, operable breast cancer to receive either pertuzumab or placebo added to standard adjuvant chemotherapy plus 1 year of treatment with trastuzumab. We assumed a 3-year invasive-disease-free survival rate of 91.8% with pertuzumab and 89.2% with placebo.
In the trial population, 63% of the patients who were randomly assigned to receive pertuzumab (2400 patients) or placebo (2405 patients) had node-positive disease and 36% had hormone-receptor-negative disease. Disease recurrence occurred in 171 patients (7.1%) in the pertuzumab group and 210 patients (8.7%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.81; 95% confidence interval CI, 0.66 to 1.00; P=0.045). The estimates of the 3-year rates of invasive-disease-free survival were 94.1% in the pertuzumab group and 93.2% in the placebo group. In the cohort of patients with node-positive disease, the 3-year rate of invasive-disease-free survival was 92.0% in the pertuzumab group, as compared with 90.2% in the placebo group (hazard ratio for an invasive-disease event, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.62 to 0.96; P=0.02). In the cohort of patients with node-negative disease, the 3-year rate of invasive-disease-free survival was 97.5% in the pertuzumab group and 98.4% in the placebo group (hazard ratio for an invasive-disease event, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.68 to 1.86; P=0.64). Heart failure, cardiac death, and cardiac dysfunction were infrequent in both treatment groups. Diarrhea of grade 3 or higher occurred almost exclusively during chemotherapy and was more frequent with pertuzumab than with placebo (9.8% vs. 3.7%).
Pertuzumab significantly improved the rates of invasive-disease-free survival among patients with HER2-positive, operable breast cancer when it was added to trastuzumab and chemotherapy. Diarrhea was more common with pertuzumab than with placebo. (Funded by F. Hoffmann-La Roche/Genentech; APHINITY ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01358877 .).
Poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase inhibitors target cancers with defects in homologous recombination repair by synthetic lethality. New therapies are needed to reduce recurrence in ...patients with
or
germline mutation-associated early breast cancer.
We conducted a phase 3, double-blind, randomized trial involving patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative early breast cancer with
or
germline pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants and high-risk clinicopathological factors who had received local treatment and neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. Patients were randomly assigned (in a 1:1 ratio) to 1 year of oral olaparib or placebo. The primary end point was invasive disease-free survival.
A total of 1836 patients underwent randomization. At a prespecified event-driven interim analysis with a median follow-up of 2.5 years, the 3-year invasive disease-free survival was 85.9% in the olaparib group and 77.1% in the placebo group (difference, 8.8 percentage points; 95% confidence interval CI, 4.5 to 13.0; hazard ratio for invasive disease or death, 0.58; 99.5% CI, 0.41 to 0.82; P<0.001). The 3-year distant disease-free survival was 87.5% in the olaparib group and 80.4% in the placebo group (difference, 7.1 percentage points; 95% CI, 3.0 to 11.1; hazard ratio for distant disease or death, 0.57; 99.5% CI, 0.39 to 0.83; P<0.001). Olaparib was associated with fewer deaths than placebo (59 and 86, respectively) (hazard ratio, 0.68; 99% CI, 0.44 to 1.05; P = 0.02); however, the between-group difference was not significant at an interim-analysis boundary of a P value of less than 0.01. Safety data were consistent with known side effects of olaparib, with no excess serious adverse events or adverse events of special interest.
Among patients with high-risk, HER2-negative early breast cancer and germline
or
pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants, adjuvant olaparib after completion of local treatment and neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with significantly longer survival free of invasive or distant disease than was placebo. Olaparib had limited effects on global patient-reported quality of life. (Funded by the National Cancer Institute and AstraZeneca; OlympiA ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02032823.).