OlympiAD Trial: Olaparib in HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer
In the phase III OlympiAD trial, olaparib monotherapy improved outcomes compared with standard single-agent chemotherapy in women with BRCA mutation–associated metastatic breast cancer, according to Mark E. Robson, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and colleagues. The risk of disease progression or death was 42% lower with olaparib than with standard therapy. These findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with Dr. Robson’s presentation during the Plenary Session at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Of the 302 patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer and a germline BRCA mutation who took part in this open-label study, approximately 200 received the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor olaparib, and the others received standard therapy with physician’s choice of single-agent chemotherapy with capecitabine, eribulin, or vinorelbine. Up to two prior lines of chemotherapy were permitted.
Median progression-free survival was longer in the olaparib group than in the standard-therapy group (7.0 vs 4.2 months; P<.001). Those who received olaparib also had a higher objective response rate at nearly 60%, compared with 29% of those treated with chemotherapy. Standard chemotherapy was associated with a higher rate of grade 3 or beyond adverse events than was olaparib (50.5% vs 36.6%).
