Dr. Llombart-Cussac on Eribulin in HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer

Antonio Llombart-Cussac, MD, PhD, chairman of the Medical Oncology Service at the University Hospital Arnau de Vilanova in Valencia, Spain, discusses the MERIBEL study, which assessed first-line eribulin (Halaven) for taxane-resistant patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer.

The goal of this study, says Llombart-Cussac, was to investigate a treatment for the metastatic breast cancer patients that have the worst prognosis— those with HER2-negative tumors.

The median overall survival for this patient population is less than 15 months.

Patients in the phase II, multicenter, single arm, trial received eribulin as a single-agent on days 1 and 8 of 21 day cycles until progression or unacceptable toxicity. The drug was extremely well tolerated and there were very few treatment interruptions or stops, according to Llombart-Cussac.

The response rate was 20% and the median time to progression was 4 months with eribulin. While these results may not be very impressive, it is important to consider that other agents have shown 2 months time to progression in this patient population, says Llombart-Cussac. In addition, 3 patients achieved more than 1 year of treatment with eribulin. This means that patients that are sensitive can maintain long periods of response with less side effects than other drugs.