The breast cancer expert spoke about the results presented in the trial, noting the benefit seen with longer follow-up.
Chau T. Dang, MD, from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discussed the APHINITY study and the benefits presented in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held December 10-14, in San Antonio, Texas.
Transcription:
The APHINITY study randomized patients with high-risk, HER2-positive breast cancer to chemotherapy trastuzumab placebo, chemotherapy trastuzumab pertuzumab, and really with a longer follow-up we showed that the invasive disease-free survival was in favor with the pertuzumab containing arm. The magnitude benefit was greater, and survival was not significant still. But the benefit in node positive patients remained, so this is a study that showed that dual antibody therapy is necessary for patients with high burden disease, i.e. patients with node positive breast cancer, and they also show that there was benefit in patients with hormone receptive positive breast cancer as well with longer follow-up. These patients have later advance, so it certainly wasn’t surprising to see some benefit in patients with hormone receptor positive breast cancer, but one thing to take away also from the study is that there still was no benefit in patients with node-negative breast cancer.