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 .).
Gene expression profiling has reshaped our understanding of breast cancer by defining and characterizing four main intrinsic molecular subtypes: human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-enriched, ...basal-like, luminal A, and luminal B subtypes. Luminal B breast cancer has been reported to have lower expression of hormone receptors, higher expression of proliferation markers, and higher histologic grade than luminal A. It also exhibits worse prognosis and has a distinct profile of response to hormone therapy and chemotherapy. Although luminal cancers share similarities, the studies conducted in recent years using next-generation sequencing technology show that luminal A and B breast cancers should be perceived as distinct entities, with specific oncogenic drivers, rather than more proliferative varieties of luminal tumors. This review discusses the definition and molecular characterization of luminal B breast cancer and presents the available clinical evidence for chemotherapy and endocrine therapy patterns of response. It also provides an overview of ongoing research on molecularly targeted agents for this disease.
Highlights • Hormone-receptor positive breast cancer constitutes the most frequent subtype. • Clinical and molecular research is intense in this subtype. • Resistance can eventually develop despite ...effective therapy. • New drugs have entered in our therapy armamentarium. • Future holds better tailoring of endocrine treatment.
PIK3CA mutations represent one of the most common genetic aberrations in breast cancer. They have been reported to be present in over one-third of cases, with enrichment in the luminal and in human ...epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive subtypes. Substantial preclinical data on the oncogenic properties of these mutations have been reported. However, whilst the preclinical data have clearly shown an association with robust activation of the pathway and resistance to common therapies used in breast cancer, the clinical data reported up to now do not support that the PIK3CA mutated genotype is associated with high levels of pathway activation or with a poor prognosis. We speculate that this may be due to the minimal use of transgenic mice models thus far. In this review, we discuss both the preclinical and clinical data associated with PIK3CA mutations and their potential implications. Prospective clinical trials stratifying by PIK3CA genotype will be necessary to determine if the mutation also predicts for increased sensitivity to agents targeting the phosphoinositide 3-kinase pathway.
Androgen receptor (AR) expression has been observed in about 70% of patients with breast cancer, but its prognostic role remains uncertain.
To assess the prognostic role of AR expression in ...early-stage breast cancer, we performed a meta-analysis of studies that evaluated the impact of AR at the protein and gene expression level on disease-free survival (DFS) and/or overall survival (OS). Eligible studies were identified by systematic review of electronic databases using the MeSH-terms "breast neoplasm" and "androgen receptor" and were selected after a qualitative assessment based on the REMARK criteria. A pooled gene expression analysis of 35 publicly available microarray data sets was also performed from patients with early-stage breast cancer with available gene expression and clinical outcome data.
Twenty-two of 33 eligible studies for the clinical meta-analysis, including 10,004 patients, were considered as evaluable for the current study after the qualitative assessment. AR positivity defined by IHC was associated with improved DFS in all patients with breast cancer multivariate (M) analysis, HR 0.46; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.37-0.58,
< 0.001 and better OS M-HR 0.53; 95% CI, 0.38-0.73,
< 0.001. Thirty-five datasets including 7,220 patients were eligible for the pooled gene expression analysis. High
mRNA levels were found to confer positive prognosis overall in terms of DFS (HR 0.82; 95% CI 0.72-0.92;
= 0.0007) and OS (HR 0.84; 95% CI, 0.75-0.94;
= 0.02) only in univariate analysis.
Our analysis, conducted among more than 17,000 women with early-stage breast cancer included in clinical and gene expression analysis, demonstrates that AR positivity is associated with favorable clinical outcome.
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Background
Trastuzumab-associated cardiotoxicity remains an issue for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. This pooled analysis of 3 adjuvant trials investigated the incidence, timing, impact ...on treatment completion, and risk factors for trastuzumab-associated cardiotoxicity.
Methods
This is an individual patient data level pooled analysis of HERA, NSBAP B-31, and NCCTG 9831 (Alliance Trials). Definitions of cardiac events were as per each individual study.
Results
A total of 7445 patients enrolled in the 3 trials were included in the analysis, of which 4017 were in the trastuzumab and 3428 in the control (observation) arms, respectively. Median follow-up exceeded 10 years (119.2–137.2 months). Nearly all patients (97.4%) in the trastuzumab arms received anthracycline-based chemotherapy. In total, 452 patients in the trastuzumab arms experienced a cardiac event (11.3%), with most being mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) decrease (351 patients, 8.7%). Severe congestive heart failure was more common in the trastuzumab arm (2.3%) than in the control arm (0.8%). Most cardiac events occurred during trastuzumab treatment (78.1%) and cardiac events were the main cause of discontinuation across the sample (10.0%); nevertheless, a large majority of patients completed trastuzumab treatment (76.2%). Baseline risk factors that were significantly associated with the development of cardiac events were baseline LVEF < 60%, hypertension, body mass index > 25, age ≥ 60 and, non-Caucasian ethnicity.
Conclusion
One year of trastuzumab increases the risk of cardiac events, though most consist of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic LVEF drops. Adjuvant trastuzumab should be considered a safe treatment from a cardiac standpoint for most patients. Trastuzumab-associated cardiotoxicity is the main cause of discontinuation and further research is needed to individualize prevention and management.
SummaryBackgroundEndocrine therapy-based neoadjuvant treatment for luminal breast cancer allows efficient testing of new combinations before surgery. The activation of the ...phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is a known mechanism of resistance to endocrine therapy. Taselisib is an oral, selective PI3K inhibitor with enhanced activity against PIK3CA-mutant cancer cells. The LORELEI trial tested whether taselisib in combination with letrozole would result in an increased proportion of objective responses and pathological complete responses. MethodsIn this multicentre, randomised, double-blind, parallel-cohort, placebo-controlled phase 2, study, we enrolled postmenopausal women (aged ≥18 years) with histologically confirmed, oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative, stage I–III, operable breast cancer, from 85 hospitals in 22 countries worldwide. To be eligible, patients had have an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0–1, adequate organ function, and had to have evaluable tumour tissue for PIK3CA genotyping. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) by means of a permuted block algorithm (block size of four) via an interactive voice or web-based response system, to receive letrozole (2·5 mg/day orally, continuously) with either 4 mg of oral taselisib or placebo (on a 5 days-on, 2 days-off schedule) for 16 weeks, followed by surgery. Randomisation was stratified by tumour size and nodal status. Site staff, patients, and the sponsor were masked to treatment assignment. Coprimary endpoints were the proportion of patients who achieved an objective response by centrally assessed breast MRI and a locally assessed pathological complete response in the breast and axilla (ypT0/Tis, ypN0) at surgery in all randomly assigned patients and in patients with PIK3CA-mutant tumours. Analyses were done in the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02273973, and is closed to accrual. FindingsBetween Nov 12, 2014, and Aug 12, 2016, 334 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive letrozole and placebo (n=168) or letrozole and taselisib (n=166). Median follow-up was 4·9 months (IQR 4·7–5·1). The study met one of its primary endpoints: the addition of taselisib to letrozole was associated with a higher proportion of patients achieving an objective response in all randomly assigned patients (66 39% of 168 patients in the placebo group vs 83 50% of 166 in the taselisib group; odds ratio OR 1·55, 95% CI 1·00–2·38; p=0·049) and in the PIK3CA-mutant subset (30 38% of 79 vs 41 56% of 73; OR 2·03, 95% CI 1·06–3·88; p=0·033). No significant differences were observed in pathological complete response between the two groups, either in the overall population (three 2% of 166 in the taselisib group vs one 1% of 168 in the placebo group; OR 3·07 95% CI 0·32–29·85, p=0·37) or in the PIK3CA-mutant cohort (one patient 1%) vs none 0%; OR not estimable, p=0·48). The most common grade 3–4 adverse events in the taselisib group were gastrointestinal (13 8% of 167 patients), infections (eight 5%), and skin–subcutaneous tissue disorders (eight 5%). In the placebo group, four (2%) of 167 patients had grade 3 or worse vascular disorders, two (1%) had gastrointestinal disorders, and two (1%) patients had grade 3 or worse infections and infestations. There was no grade 4 hyperglycaemia and grade 3 cases were asymptomatic. Serious adverse events were more common in the taselisib group (eight 5% patients with infections and seven 4% with gastrointestinal effects) than in the placebo group (one 1% patient each with grade 3 postoperative wound and haematoma infection, grade 4 hypertensive encephalopathy, grade 3 acute cardiac failure, and grade 3 breast pain). One death occurred in the taselisib group, which was not considered to be treatment-related. InterpretationThe increase in the proportion of patients who achieved an objective response from the addition of taselisib to endocrine therapy in a neoadjuvant setting is consistent with the clinical benefit observed in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, metastatic breast cancer. FundingGenentech and F Hoffmann-La Roche.
Abstract Estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and HER2-negative (HER2-) breast cancer (BC) is the most common BC subtype, defined by expression of the ER and absence of HER2 amplification. Endocrine ...treatment (ET), aiming at therapeutic blockade of ER signaling, represents the therapeutic mainstay for patients with both early and advanced disease. Despite its wide therapeutic efficacy, ET fails for a proportion of ER+, HER2- BC patients with early disease who develop endocrine resistance, resulting in disease recurrence. Endocrine resistance occurs almost invariably in patients with metastatic disease. Recently, increasing understanding of the molecular mediators of endocrine resistance has been achieved. This review focuses on the molecular mechanisms mediating endocrine resistance, on molecularly targeted agents to overcome or delay it, and potential predictive biomarkers for accurate patient stratification.
Summary Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide, and increasingly, randomised controlled trials of this disease are measuring the health-related quality of life of ...these patients. In this systematic Review, we assess the adequacy of methods used to report health-related quality of life (HRQOL) from 49 eligible randomised controlled trials of advanced breast cancer. We compare our findings with those from the literature to investigate whether the standard of HRQOL reporting in this field has changed. We conclude that the overall reporting of HRQOL has improved, but some crucial aspects remain problematic, such as the absence of HRQOL research hypotheses and the overemphasis on statistical rather than clinical significance. Additionally, new challenges are arising with the emergence of novel treatments and the advent of personalised medicine, and improved HRQOL tools are required to cover the range of side-effects of newer therapies.
Cancer is one of the oldest diseases ever described, since ancient Egypt there have always been attempts to treat and cure this illness. The growing body of knowledge about breast cancer biology and ...improvements in surgical and medical treatments has been built over time with contributions from many talented and enthusiastic physicians and researchers. Medical advances have changed the approach from a previously incurable condition, into a surgical disease. Further improvements in cancer biology have allowed the development of systemic treatments, hormonal therapies, and targeted drugs. The description of the molecular intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer clarified the understanding of breast cancer as a group of heterogeneous diseases, associated with different clinical outcomes, and therapeutic opportunities. This paper reviews how breast cancer treatment has improved since the earliest descriptions, in ancient times, and how future approaches, such as gene signatures, molecular profiling, and liquid biopsies, aim to further develop individualised treatments and improve treatment outcomes.
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