ESMO 2021: Subgroup Analysis of Asian Patients Treated With T-DM1 for Breast Cancer
Posted: Monday, October 4, 2021
Presented during the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021 (Abstract 284P), Seock-Ah Im, MD, PhD, of Seoul National University Hospital, Korea, and colleagues conducted reported on a subgroup analysis of Asian patients enrolled in Asia in the EMILIA study; this phase III trial evaluated the use of trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), a HER2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate, in patients with HER2-positive locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Despite an observed increase in grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia, T-DM1 appeared to demonstrate a “clinically meaningful benefit” compared with capecitabine plus lapatinib in this select patient population.
This study focused on 158 patients from Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Philippines who had HER2-positive locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Participants were previously treated with trastuzumab and taxane therapy and randomly assigned to receive either capecitabine plus lapatinib (n = 76) or T-DM1 (n = 82).
At the median follow-up of 13 months, the median progression-free survival for patients treated with capecitabine plus lapatinib was 6.9 months, and it was 9.3 months for patients given T-DM1. Objective response rates with capecitabine plus lapatinib and T-DM1 were 38.7% and 44.4%, respectively, with median durations of response of 6.9 and 9.6 months, respectively.
At the median follow-up of 19 months, the median overall survival for patients treated with T-DM1 (34.3 months) was higher than that of those given capecitabine plus lapatinib (22.7 months). Of note, safety profiles were generally similar between the patient groups. “Increased grade 3 and 4 thrombocytopenia was noted with T-DM1 in Asian patients, but there was no > grade 1 hemorrhage,” the investigators noted.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit oncologypro.esmo.org.
