ESMO 2019: Adding Veliparib to Chemotherapy for BRCA-Mutated Breast Cancer
Posted: Monday, October 21, 2019
The combination of the PARP inhibitor veliparib with carboplatin and paclitaxel yielded significant improvement in progression-free survival compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with BRCA-mutated breast cancer. Veronique C. Dieras, MD, of the Institute Curie in Paris, presented work she completed with colleagues at the 2019 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Barcelona (Abstract LBA9).
This phase III trial was a double blind, placebo-controlled study that randomly assigned patients to receive carboplatin and paclitaxel with either veliparib or placebo. All patients included in the study had mutations in either BRCA1 or BRCA2 and were treated with up to two lines of prior therapy. Carboplatin was given on days –2 to 5 along with either placebo or 120 mg of veliparib, and paclitaxel was administered weekly in 21-day cycles.
Of the patients included in this study, 48% had estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor– negative disease, 8% had prior platinum therapy, 4% had a history of central nervous system metastases, and 19% had received prior chemotherapy for metastatic disease. The median progression-free survival for the 337 patients receiving veliparib was 14.5 months, compared with 12.6 months for the 127 patients in the placebo group. In addition, the 3-year progression-free survival rate was 26% with veliparib and 14% with placebo. Overall survival was calculated to be 33.5 months and 28.2 months for the triple therapy compared with carboplatin and paclitaxel alone.
Common grade 3 or higher adverse events in the veliparib and placebo arms were anemia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia. Approximately 88% of patients in the veliparib arm had a carboplatin dose reduction, and 74% had a paclitaxel dose reduction. In the placebo arm, 86% had a dose reduction in carboplatin, and 70% had a dose reduction in paclitaxel.
Disclosure: Full disclosures of the study authors can be found at cslide.ctimeetingtech.com.
