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Aim: Assess factors associated with first-line (1L) treatment for HR+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer. Materials & methods: A cross-sectional survey of 250 US oncologists was conducted. Correlations were calculated between treatment class and demographics, treatment perceptions and other clinical/nonclinical characteristics. Results: Efficacy and safety/tolerability were critical in oncologists' 1L decision-making. CDK4/6i use positively correlated with proportion of Medicare and postmenopausal patients (r = 0.54-0.67). Chemotherapy use demonstrated positive correlations with perimenopausal and premenopausal patients and symptom burden (r = 0.31-0.42). Aromatase inhibitor (AI) monotherapy correlated positively with anticipated treatment compliance (r = 0.42). Conclusion: Efficacy and safety/tolerability were most important to 1L decision-making. Clinical characteristics corresponded with CDK4/6i and chemotherapy use. Anticipated compliance was associated with AI monotherapy use.
Patients in the USA with a certain type of metastatic breast cancer (mBC, i.e., HR+/HER2−) might get chemotherapy or hormone therapy alone instead of new and potentially better medicines called cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitors (CDK4/6i) as their first treatment.Researchers wanted to understand how US cancer specialists decided the first treatment for this type of mBC. In a survey of 250 cancer specialists, researchers looked at different factors that might influence decision-making, including patient characteristics, doctors' opinions about the treatments and other medical and non-medical features. This study also examined the connections between these factors and the cancer specialists' choice of first treatment.Researchers found that cancer specialists care most about how well a treatment works and how safe it is when choosing the first treatment for HR+/HER2− mBC. They are more likely to use CDK4/6i if their patients have Medicare coverage or are older (i.e., women who have been through menopause). Chemotherapy is chosen if their patients are younger (i.e., women who are near and before menopause) or have more symptoms. Cancer specialists tend to choose first treatment with hormone therapy alone if they think their patients have a hard time following their treatment plan. The results showed that patient characteristics, doctors' opinions of treatments and other medical and non-medical factors play a role in choosing treatment for HR+/HER2− mBC. By understanding these factors, researchers can work toward improving treatment choices for patients with this type of mBC.
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Aim: To examine clinical characteristics, real-world treatment patterns, and health outcomes among patients with germline BRCA1/2-mutated, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative advanced breast cancer (ABC). Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted using medical records from patients with HER2-negative ABC with BRCA1/2 mutation who received cytotoxic chemotherapy. Data were stratified into groups with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) or hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/HER2-negative diagnoses. Time-to-event outcomes (i.e., real-world progression-free survival [rwPFS] and overall survival [OS]) were calculated to summarize health outcomes. Results: When diagnosed with ABC, most patients were younger than 60 years (mean age = 57.3 years), were white (76.4%), and had a family history of BRCA-related cancer (71.5%). A total of 305 patient records were examined; 194 patients (63.6%) had advanced TNBC, and 111 patients (36.4%) had HR+/HER2-negative ABC. Chemotherapy was primarily used as first-line treatment for both subgroups, but the TNBC subgroup received poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors at triple the rate as a second-line treatment and double the rate as a third-line treatment compared with the HR+/HER2-negative subgroup. Two-year OS rates were similar between the TNBC (73.9%) and the HR+/HER2-negative subgroups (77.0%), and anemia, nausea, and neutropenia were the most commonly reported toxicities across all treatments. Conclusion: Clinicians should consider the use of targeted agents such as PARP inhibitors in earlier lines of therapy for ABC given the growing evidence that PARP inhibitors may improve PFS compared with chemotherapy while potentially offering a more manageable toxicity profile and improved quality of life.
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Inhibitors of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway frequently induce hypertension when used to treat patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This analysis characterizes hypertension and hypertension-related events in patients treated with the VEGF pathway inhibitors axitinib or sorafenib in the AXIS trial. AXIS was a randomized phase III study of axitinib versus sorafenib in patients with metastatic RCC following failure of one prior systemic regimen. Patients with uncontrolled hypertension were excluded, but patients with hypertension controlled with antihypertensive medication were allowed to participate. Guidelines for hypertension management included adjustment or addition of antihypertensive medications and/or axitinib or sorafenib dose reductions, interruptions, or discontinuations. Treatment-emergent all-causality hypertension occurred in 145 (40.4 %) axitinib-treated patients (N = 359) and 103 (29.0 %) sorafenib-treated patients (N = 355), with grade 3 hypertension reported in 55 (15.3 %) and 38 (10.7 %) patients, respectively, and grade 4 hypertension reported in one (0.3 %) patient in each arm. Hypertension-related events led to axitinib dose interruptions (n = 46; 12.8 %), dose reductions (n = 16; 4.5 %), or discontinuations (n = 1; 0.3 %). Approximately 50 % of axitinib-treated patients with grade 3 or 4 hypertension continued treatment for ≥ 9 months. Hypertension-related sequelae occurred in <1 % of axitinib-treated patients. Hypertension was more frequently observed during treatment with axitinib than sorafenib in patients with RCC, but axitinib-induced hypertension rarely led to treatment discontinuation or cardiovascular sequelae. Recommendations for monitoring blood pressure and managing hypertension during axitinib therapy are presented.