Genomic Classification of HER2-Positive Patients With 80-Gene and 70-Gene Signatures Identifies Diversity in Clinical Outcomes With HER2-Targeted Neoadjuvant Therapy.

PURPOSE: The prospective Neoadjuvant Breast Registry Symphony Trial compared the 80-gene molecular subtyping signature with clinical assessment by immunohistochemistry and/or fluorescence in situ hybridization in predicting pathologic complete response (pCR) and 5-year outcomes in patients with early-stage breast cancer. METHODS: Standard-of-care neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with trastuzumab or trastuzumab plus pertuzumab was given to patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive tumors (n = 295). pCR was the primary end point, with secondary end points of distant metastasis-free survival and overall survival at 5 years. RESULTS: Among clinically defined HER2-positive (cHER2) tumors, the 80-gene assay identified 29.5% (87 of 295) as Luminal-Type (cHER2/gLuminal), 14.9% (44 of 295) as Basal-Type (cHER2/gBasal), and 55.6% (164 of 295) as HER2-Type (cHER2/genomically classified as HER2 [gHER2]). Patients with cHER2/gHER2 tumors had a higher pCR rate (61.6%) compared with non-gHER2 tumors (26.7%; P < .001). Dual targeting for cHER2/gHER2 tumors yielded a higher pCR rate (75%) compared with those treated with single HER2-targeted therapy (54%; P = .006). For cHER2/gBasal tumors, the 42.9% pCR rate observed with dual targeting was not different from that with trastuzumab alone (46.4%; P = .830). Among those with cHER2/gBasal tumors, 5-year distant metastasis-free survival (68.6%; 95% CI, 49.1 to 81.9) was significantly worse than in patients with cHER2/gLuminal tumors (88.9%; 95% CI, 78.0 to 94.6) and cHER2/gHER2 tumors (87.4%; 95% CI, 80.2 to 92.2; P = .010), with similar corresponding overall survival differences. CONCLUSION: The 80-gene assay identified meaningful genomic diversity in patients with cHER2 disease. Patients with cHER2/gHER2 tumors, who benefitted most from dual HER2-targeted therapy, accounted for approximately half of the cHER2 cohort. Genomically Luminal tumors had low pCR rates but good 5-year outcomes. cHER2/gBasal tumors derived no benefit from dual therapy and had significantly worse 5-year prognosis; these patients merit special consideration in future trials.

Age-Independent Preoperative Chemosensitivity and 5-Year Outcome Determined by Combined 70- and 80-Gene Signature in a Prospective Trial in Early-Stage Breast Cancer.

BACKGROUND: The Neoadjuvant Breast Symphony Trial (NBRST) demonstrated the 70-gene risk of distant recurrence signature, MammaPrint, and the 80-gene molecular subtyping signature, BluePrint, precisely determined preoperative pathological complete response (pCR) in breast cancer patients. We report 5-year follow-up results in addition to an exploratory analysis by age and menopausal status. METHODS: The observational, prospective NBRST (NCT01479101) included 954 early-stage breast cancer patients aged 18-90 years who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and had clinical and genomic data available. Chemosensitivity and 5-year distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed. In a post hoc subanalysis, results were stratified by age (≤ 50 vs. > 50 years) and menopausal status in patients with hormone receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR+/HER2-) tumors. RESULTS: MammaPrint and BluePrint further classified 23% of tumors to a different subtype compared with immunohistochemistry, with more precise correspondence to pCR rates. Five-year DMFS and OS were highest in MammaPrint Low Risk, Luminal A-type and HER2-type tumors, and lowest in MammaPrint High Risk, Luminal B-type and Basal-type tumors. There was no significant difference in chemosensitivity between younger and older patients with Low-Risk (2.2% vs. 3.8%; p = 0.64) or High-Risk tumors (14.5% vs. 11.5%; p = 0.42), or within each BluePrint subtype; this was similar when stratifying by menopausal status. The 5-year outcomes were comparable by age or menopausal status for each molecular subtype. CONCLUSION: Intrinsic preoperative chemosensitivity and long-term outcomes were precisely determined by BluePrint and MammaPrint regardless of patient age, supporting the utility of these assays to inform treatment and surgical decisions in early-stage breast cancer.

Pertuzumab/Trastuzumab/CT Versus Trastuzumab/CT Therapy for HER2+ Breast Cancer: Results from the Prospective Neoadjuvant Breast Registry Symphony Trial (NBRST).

BACKGROUND: Pertuzumab became a standard part of neoadjuvant therapy for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) breast cancers approximately halfway through Neoadjuvant Breast Registry Symphony Trial (NBRST) enrollment, providing a unique opportunity to determine biologically which clinical HER2+ patients benefit most from dual targeting. As a neoadjuvant phase 4 study, NBRST classifies patients by both conventional and molecular subtyping. METHODS: Of 308 clinical HER2+ patients enrolled in NBRST between 2011 and 2014 from 62 U.S. institutions, 297 received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) with HER2-targeted therapy and underwent surgery. This study compared the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate of BluePrint versus clinical subtypes with treatment, specifically differences between trastuzumab (T) treatment and trastuzumab and pertuzumab (T/P) treatment. RESULTS: In this study, 60% of the patients received NCT-T, and 40% received NCT-T/P. The overall pCR rate (ypT0/isN0) was 47%. BluePrint classified 161 tumors (54%) as HER2 type, with a pCR rate of 65%. This was significantly higher than the pCR rate for the 91 HER2+ tumors (31%) classified as luminal (18%) (p = 0.00001) and the 45 tumors (15%) classified as basal (44%) (p = 0.0166). The patients treated with T/P had higher pCR rates than those treated with trastuzumab alone. The difference was most pronounced in the BluePrint luminal patients (8 vs. 31%). The highest pCR was reached by the BluePrint HER2-type patients treated with T/P (76%). CONCLUSIONS: The addition of pertuzumab leads to increased pCR rates for all HER2+ patient groups except for the BluePrint basal-type patients. This better response was most pronounced for the BluePrint luminal-type patients.

Relation between chelation and clinical outcomes in lower-risk patients with myelodysplastic syndromes: Registry analysis at 5 years.

Prospective data are needed to ascertain the impact of iron chelation therapy in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes. The present 5-year prospective registry analysis was conducted to compare clinical outcomes between chelated and nonchelated patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes and transfusional iron overload. In an interim analysis at 24 months, we previously reported that chelation therapy was associated with longer median overall survival and a tendency toward longer leukemia-free survival and fewer cardiac events. In the present report, we detail findings from the final analysis at 5 years. We confirm, at the conclusion of this 5-year, prospective, non-interventional study, that overall survival was significantly longer in patients who received iron chelation therapy vs those who did not. Causes of death in the overall population were predominantly myelodysplastic syndromes/acute myeloid leukemia followed by cardiac disease. Time to progression to acute myeloid leukemia was also significantly longer in patients receiving chelation therapy, and significantly fewer patients progressed to leukemia vs those not receiving chelation therapy. Limitations of the study include a potential for clinical bias, as patients with longer predicted survival may have been chosen for chelation therapy, the differences present in concomitant conditions at baseline, and the possibility that some high-risk patients were not identified due to limited cytogenetic classification.

Ramucirumab With Eribulin Versus Eribulin in Locally Recurrent or Metastatic Breast Cancer Previously Treated With Anthracycline and Taxane Therapy: A Multicenter, Randomized, Phase II Study.

BACKGROUND: Use of antiangiogenic agents in treatment of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) remains controversial. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of ramucirumab and eribulin versus eribulin alone as third- to fifth-line therapy in women with advanced breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this randomized (1:1), open-label, phase II study, US women aged 18 years or older with 2 to 4 previous chemotherapy regimens for locally recurrent or MBC, previous anthracycline and taxane treatment, and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1 received ramucirumab with eribulin or eribulin alone in 21-day cycles (eribulin 1.4 mg/m2 intravenously on days 1 and 8; ramucirumab 10 mg/kg intravenously on day 1). Randomization was stratified according to previous antiangiogenic therapy and triple-negative status. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS) in the intention to treat population. RESULTS: One hundred forty-one women were randomized to ramucirumab with eribulin (n = 71) or eribulin alone (n = 70). Median PFS for ramucirumab with eribulin was 4.4 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.1-6.7) compared with 4.1 months (95% CI, 3.2-5.6) for eribulin (hazard ratio [HR], 0.83; 95% CI, 0.56-1.23; P = .35). Median overall survival in patients who received ramucirumab with eribulin was 13.5 months (95% CI, 10.4-17.9) compared with 11.5 months (95% CI, 9.0-17.3) in patients who received eribulin alone (HR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.59-1.41; P = .68); objective response rate was 21% (13 of 62 patients) for the combination and 28% (17 of 60 patients) for eribulin alone. No unexpected toxicity was identified for the combination. CONCLUSION: Ramucirumab combined with eribulin did not significantly improve PFS in advanced MBC.

A phase II trial of trabectedin in triple-negative and HER2-overexpressing metastatic breast cancer.

Trabectedin is an alkylating agent that binds to the minor groove of DNA. Early studies with trabectedin suggested efficacy in triple-negative and HER2-overexpressing metastatic breast cancer (MBC). The efficacy and safety of trabectedin in pretreated patients with these tumors were evaluated in this parallel-cohort phase II trial. Patients received a 3-h infusion of trabectedin 1.3 mg/m(2) intravenously every 3 weeks until progression or unmanageable/unacceptable toxicity. The primary objective was to evaluate the efficacy using the objective response rate (ORR) as per Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST). Secondary objectives comprised time-to-event endpoints and safety assessed with the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI-CTCAE) v.3.0. Patients with heavily pretreated triple-negative (n = 50) or HER2-overexpressing (n = 37) MBC were enrolled. No confirmed responses were found in triple-negative MBC patients, with median progression-free survival (PFS) of 2.2 months (95 % CI 1.3-2.7 months). Confirmed partial responses occurred in 4 of 34 evaluable HER2-overexpressing MBC patients (ORR = 12 %; 95 % CI 3-27 %) and lasted a median of 12.5 months (95 % CI, 6.2-14.7 months); median PFS was 3.8 months (95 % CI, 1.8-5.5 months). Most trabectedin-related adverse events were mild or moderate, and the most frequent were fatigue, nausea, vomiting, constipation, and anorexia. Severe neutropenia and transaminase increases were non-cumulative and transient and were mostly managed by infusion delays or dose reductions. Single-agent trabectedin is well tolerated in aggressive MBC and has moderate activity in HER2-overexpressing tumors. Further studies are warranted to evaluate trabectedin combined with HER2-targeted treatments in this subtype.

Sunitinib plus paclitaxel versus bevacizumab plus paclitaxel for first-line treatment of patients with advanced breast cancer: a phase III, randomized, open-label trial.

INTRODUCTION: A multicenter, open-label phase III study was conducted to test whether sunitinib plus paclitaxel prolongs progression-free survival (PFS) compared with bevacizumab plus paclitaxel as first-line treatment for patients with HER2(-) advanced breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with HER2(-) advanced breast cancer who were disease free for ≥ 12 months after adjuvant taxane treatment were randomized (1:1; planned enrollment 740 patients) to receive intravenous (I.V.) paclitaxel 90 mg/m(2) every week for 3 weeks in 4-week cycles plus either sunitinib 25 to 37.5 mg every day or bevacizumab 10 mg/kg I.V. every 2 weeks. [corrected] RESULTS: The trial was terminated early because of futility in reaching the primary endpoint as determined by the independent data monitoring committee during an interim futility analysis. At data cutoff, 242 patients had been randomized to sunitinib-paclitaxel and 243 patients to bevacizumab-paclitaxel. Median PFS was shorter with sunitinib-paclitaxel (7.4 vs. 9.2 months; hazard ratio [HR] 1.63 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.18-2.25]; 1-sided P = .999). At a median follow-up of 8.1 months, with 79% of sunitinib-paclitaxel and 87% of bevacizumab-paclitaxel patients alive, overall survival analysis favored bevacizumab-paclitaxel (HR 1.82 [95% CI, 1.16-2.86]; 1-sided P = .996). The objective response rate was 32% in both arms, but median duration of response was shorter with sunitinib-paclitaxel (6.3 vs. 14.8 months). Bevacizumab-paclitaxel was better tolerated than sunitinib-paclitaxel. This was primarily due to a high frequency of grade 3/4, treatment-related neutropenia with sunitinib-paclitaxel (52%) precluding delivery of the prescribed doses of both drugs. CONCLUSION: The sunitinib-paclitaxel regimen evaluated in this study was clinically inferior to the bevacizumab-paclitaxel regimen and is not a recommended treatment option for patients with advanced breast cancer.