Updated Results on Neratinib in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
Posted: Friday, March 9, 2018
One year of treatment with neratinib has been shown to significantly improve 2-year disease-free survival in a particular group of women with breast cancer: those with early-stage HER2-positive disease who have already undergone chemotherapy and trastuzumab-based adjuvant therapy. The results were published in The Lancet Oncology by the ExteNET Study Group.
Speaking of the results at the 2017 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology, lead author Miguel Martin, MD, of the Gregorio Marañón Health Research Institute in Madrid, noted: “This 5-year analysis of the ExteNET trial confirms the early results of sustained benefit with extended adjuvant neratinib after chemotherapy and trastuzumab.” However, the investigators added, “longer follow-up is needed to ensure the improvement in breast cancer outcome [with neratinib] is maintained.”
Between 2009 and 2011, more than 2,800 of the qualifying women participating in this phase III trial from around the world were placed in the neratinib or placebo group. After more than 5 years’ follow-up, 116 of 1,420 patients in the neratinib group had invasive disease–free survival events, fewer than the 163 events in the 1,420 patients in the placebo group (P = .0083). Consequently, the 5-year invasive disease–free survival rate was 90.2% in the neratinib group versus 87.7% in the placebo group.
