Dr. Lin on the Advantage of Elacestrant in ESR1-Mutated Breast Cancer

Nancy U. Lin, MD, associate chief, Division of Breast Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers, director, Metastatic Breast Cancer Program, director, Program for Patients with Breast Cancer Brain Metastases, senior physician, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses the advantage of the oral selective estrogen receptor degrader(SERD), elacestrant, in ESR1-mutated breast cancers.

The phase 3 EMERALD trial (NCT03778931) is investigating the efficacy of elacestrant vs standard-of-care endocrine therapy in patients whose breast cancer has advanced on no less than 1 endocrine therapy. An updated analysis of the phase 3 trial was presented at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting.

The potential advantage of elacestrant over medications such as fulvestrant is the dosing, as fulvestrant is limited by dosing issues, Lin says. Overall, the EMERALD trial was a positive. However, the activity of the drug in ESR1-mutated breast cancers was not entirely clear, Lin explains. Recently, a subset analysis showed that in patients with ESR1-mutated breast cancers, there was a substantial progression-free survival benefit with the agent, Lin says.

These results further support the potential role of elacestrant in endocrine-resistant breast cancer, Lin concludes.