Addressing HER2-Positive Residual Breast Cancer

The survival benefit of adjuvant trastuzumab emtansine over trastuzumab alone was sustained at long-term follow-up in patients with residual disease following neoadjuvant HER2-directed therapy.

It has long been recognized that among patients with HER2-positive breast cancer receiving neoadjuvant HER2 -directed therapy, those with residual disease at the time of surgery have a worse prognosis than those with a pathologic complete response. Investigators from the open-label, randomized, phase 3 KATHERINE trial previously reported that patients with residual disease after taxane-based HER2-directed neoadjuvant therapy had a 50% reduction in the risk for invasive breast cancer or death at 3 years with adjuvant trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) versus adjuvant trastuzumab alone. Now, with a median follow-up of 8.4 years, the investigators report that the benefit is sustained.

Seven-year invasive disease-free survival was 80.8% with T-DM1 ve…

Reviewing Author

William J. Gradishar, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardLilly; AstraZeneca; Gilead

Grant/Research SupportBreast Cancer Research Foundation

Editorial BoardsClinical Breast Cancer; Oncology; Annals of Surgery; Breast Cancer Research and Treatment

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNational Comprehensive Cancer Network (Chair, Breast Cancer Panel); American Board of Internal Medicine (Medical Oncology Board)