VIDEO: Expert discusses “breathtaking” DESTINY-Breast03 data
Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, discussed “unprecedented results” from DESTINY-Breast03 presented at the virtual ESMO Congress in a video interview with Healio.
The randomized phase 3 trial demonstrated significant PFS improvement in patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who received trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu;, Daiichi Sankyo, AstraZeneca).
“At the median follow-up time of around 15 months, the [HR] was 0.28. I will say I have never seen [an HR] this low,” Tolaney, associate director of the Susan F. Smith Center for Women's Cancers, director of breast oncology clinical trials and director of breast immunotherapy clinical research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said.
Not only was the response rate “extraordinarily high” at around 80% for patients getting trastuzumab deruxtecan, but the complete response rate was 16%.
“So that means that 16% of patients had no visible disease seen on their scan. Really, this makes us wonder what’s going to happen to these patients with longer follow-up — is it possible that some of these patients could even be cured of their metastatic disease?” Tolaney said. “I think this trial has really made history and, in my mind, really does establish trastuzumab deruxtecan as our standard therapy in the second-line setting for metastatic HER2-positive disease.”
Previously, DESTINY-Breast01 data showed interstitial lung disease (ILD) was a concern; however, the ILD rate was lower and there were no grade 4 or 5 events seen in DESTINY-Breast03, making this “really reassuring from a toxicity standpoint and really breathtaking data from an efficacy standpoint,” according to Tolaney.
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Cortés J, et al. Abstract LBA1. Presented at: European Society for Medical Oncology Congress (virtual meeting); Sept. 16-21, 2021.