A new chemotherapy-free combination reduces the risk of progression by 48% and improves tolerability in a molecularly selected group of patients with advanced breast cancer
- NOTA DE PRENSA
In patients with ER+/HER2+ metastatic breast cancer of luminal subtype A or B, combined treatment with hormone therapy, trastuzumab and palbociclib significantly delays the time to disease progression and reduces treatment-related adverse events compared to conventional treatment
The PATRICIA study is the first to molecularly select patients with advanced ER+/HER2+ breast cancer and demonstrates the predictive value of such molecular selection to offer new, more effective and less toxic treatment alternatives
The SOLTI research group is presenting these results today at the American Society for Medical Oncology’s ASCO 2024 meeting in Chicago from 31 May to 4 June
Barcelona, 1 June 2024.- SOLTI, a reference group in clinical cancer research in Spain, presents the results of its PATRICIA-cohort C trial, which show that the combination with hormone therapy, trastuzumab and palbociclib is a more effective and better tolerated option than conventional treatment (consisting of chemotherapy and trastuzumab) in patients with advanced ER+/HER2+ breast cancer. In this molecularly selected group of patients with advanced breast cancer (Luminal A and B), the new combination reduces the risk of disease progression by 48%. These results have been presented today at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2024 meeting being held from 31 May to 4 June in Chicago (USA).
Among patients with HER2+ breast cancer, approximately 50% also express estrogen receptor (ER+) positivity. However, within this group there is a molecular heterogeneity that may explain the differences in prognosis and evolution of patients. Therefore, it makes sense to improve the molecular characterisation of these tumours (ER+/HER2+) through specific gene expression analysis. Thus, patients whose tumours express genes related to the oestrogen receptor (intrinsic subtype Luminal A or B) are those who obtain an indisputable benefit from the combination of hormone therapy, trastuzumab and palbociclib, which reduces the risk of progression by almost half compared to conventional treatment with chemotherapy and/or anti-HER2 drugs.
Dr. Eva Ciruelos, Vice President of SOLTI and coordinator of the breast cancer unit of the Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid and HM Hospitales and main investigator of the PATRICIA study, together with Dr. Aleix Prat, director of the Institute of Cancer and Blood Diseases of the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, says: ‘this is the first study that shows that the molecular selection of patients with advanced HER2+/ER+ breast cancer has a predictive value in order to offer new combinations of chemotherapy-free treatments. These combinations not only demonstrate greater efficacy than conventional treatment but are also an opportunity to improve patients’ tolerability and quality of life. With this therapeutic alternative, the median time to progression for patients in the experimental treatment is 9.1 months, compared to 7.5 months in the conventional treatment’.
About PATRICIA trial
PATRICIA is a phase II clinical trial. The first part of the trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of palbociclib plus trastuzumab, with or without hormonal therapy, in pre-treated postmenopausal patients with HER2+ metastatic breast cancer. Their results (cohorts A and B) in advanced ER+/HER2+ breast cancer showed that the combination of hormone therapy, trastuzumab, and palbociclib was safe with promising survival outcomes in tumours molecularly classified as luminal subtypes A or B. Based on these results, the study was expanded to Cohort C by prospectively selecting triple-positive patients with a Luminal A or B molecular subtype.
The PATRICIA trial included a total of 73 patients and promoted by the academic research group SOLTI, was supported by Pfizer, PAS a PAS and through grants from the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM).
