The effectiveness and safety of neoadjuvant pertuzumab and trastuzumab in women with locally advanced, inflammatory, or early-stage human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive breast cancer: Turkish Oncology Group study

Anticancer Drugs. 2022 Aug 1;33(7):663-670. doi: 10.1097/CAD.0000000000001310. Epub 2022 Jun 20.

Abstract

In our study, we aimed to evaluate the pathological response rates and side effect profile of adding pertuzumab to the treatment of HER2+ locally advanced, inflammatory, or early-stage breast cancer. This study was conducted by the Turkish Oncology Group (TOG) with data collected from 32 centers. Our study was multicentric, and a total of 364 patients were included. The median age of the patients was 49 years (18-85 years). Two hundred fifteen (60%) of the cases were hormone receptor/HER2+ positive(ER+ or PR+, or both), and 149 (40%) of them were HER2-rich (ER and PR negative). The number of complete responses was 124 (54%) in the docetaxel+trastuzumab+pertuzumab arm and 102 (45%) in the paclitaxel+trastuzumab+pertuzumab arm, and there was no difference between the groups in terms of complete response. In 226 (62%) patients with complete response, a significant correlation was found with DCIS, tumor focality, removed lymph node, and ER status P < 0.05. Anemia, nausea, vomiting, myalgia, alopecia, and mucosal inflammation were significantly higher in the docetaxel arm, P < 0.05. In our study, no statistical difference was found between the before-after echocardiography values. DCIS positivity in biopsy before neoadjuvant chemotherapy, tumor focality; the number of lymph nodes removed and ER status were found to be associated with pCR. In conclusion, we think that studies evaluating pCR-related clinicopathological variables and radiological imaging features will play a critical role in the development of nonsurgical treatment approaches.

MeSH terms

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
  • Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / adverse effects
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / metabolism
  • Breast Neoplasms* / pathology
  • Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating* / drug therapy
  • Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating* / etiology
  • Docetaxel / therapeutic use
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoadjuvant Therapy / methods
  • Receptor, ErbB-2 / metabolism
  • Trastuzumab / adverse effects

Substances

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Docetaxel
  • ERBB2 protein, human
  • Receptor, ErbB-2
  • pertuzumab
  • Trastuzumab