Dr. Esteva Discusses Adjuvant Trastuzumab in HER2+ Breast Cancer

Francisco J. Esteva, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, New York University’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, discusses adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) in HER2-positive early breast cancer.

Data presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting showed that a 6-month course of adjuvant trastuzumab was a noninferior schedule regarding disease-free survival (DFS) when compared with the standard 12-month regimen. Esteva says that the question now is how these data fit into the standard of care.

This data was from the phase III PERSEPHONE trial, which randomized 4088 patients across 152 sites in the United Kingdom to receive trastuzumab for 6 months (n = 2043) or 12 months (n = 2045). At 5 years, the 4-year DFS rate was 89.8% with 12 months of trastuzumab compared with 89.4% with the 6-month course, which met the criteria for noninferiority.

Esteva says that until there is more information released on this shorter schedule, the standard in the United States will remain 12 months of adjuvant trastuzumab for patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.