Early use of lapatinib and trastuzumab is active in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive metastatic breast cancer, a new study published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has shown.
For the phase 2 study, researchers enrolled 87 patients with metastatic breast cancer. Patients were divided into two cohorts: (1) those with no prior trastuzumab for metastatic breast cancer and at least 1 year from adjuvant trastuzumab, if given, and (2) those who received one to two lines of chemotherapy including trastuzumab for metastatic breast cancer and/or recurrence less than 1 year from adjuvant trastuzumab.
Results showed that among 85 evaluable patients, the confirmed objective response rate was 50.0% (95% CI: 33.8, 66.2) and 22.2% (95% CI: 11.3, 37.3) in cohorts 1 and 2, respectively. Moreover, researchers found that the clinical benefit rate was 57.5% (95% CI: 40.9, 73.0) and 40.0% (95% CI: 25.7, 55.7), respectively.
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The study also demonstrated a median progression-free survival of 7.4 months in cohort 1 and 5.3 months in cohort 2.
In addition, patients who did not achieve a week-1 [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography imaging ([18F]FDG-PET/CT) response were associated with failure to achieve an objective response, suggesting that [18F]FDG-PET/CT may help to identify patients who can be treated with targeted regimens such as this one and avoid toxicities caused by chemotherapy.
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