SABCS 2018: Adjuvant Capecitabine for Early-Stage Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Posted: Thursday, December 20, 2018
Results from the GEICAM/CIBOMA clinical trial suggest that adjuvant capecitabine after standard chemotherapy does not improve survival in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer. However, in subgroup analyses of those with non–basal-like disease, a significant improvement in disease-free or overall survival was reported with adjuvant capecitabine compared with observation. The results were presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) (Abstract GS2-04).
“We were disappointed to find that adding adjuvant capecitabine to the standard treatment did not significantly improve disease-free or overall survival,” noted Miguel Martín, MD, PhD, of Universidad Complutense, Madrid, in an SABCS press release. “However, given that we found a subset of the patients with non–basal-like disease seemed to have a significant benefit from capecitabine..., we strongly recommend that patients with triple-negative breast cancer discuss adjuvant capecitabine with their oncologists.”
The authors randomly assigned 876 patients with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer 1:1 to the capecitabine treatment group or observation group. All patients had been treated with surgery and chemotherapy prior to being enrolled in the study.
Those treated with capecitabine showed no improvement in disease-free survival compared with the observation group (P = .1353). The 5-year disease-free survival rate in the treatment group was 79.6% compared with 76.8% in the observed group. There was also no significant difference in overall survival between the two groups. However, the authors did observe a significant improvement in disease-free survival in a subgroup analysis of patients with non–basal disease (P = .0357). Severe adverse events occurred in 40.4% of patients in the capecitabine arm, and of them, 9.6% were directly related to the treatment.
