Dr. Murthy on Future of Tucatinib in HER2+ Breast Cancer

Rashmi K. Murthy, MD, assistant professor, Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the future of tucatinib in the treatment of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. She presented phase Ib data at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

There is an ongoing phase II registration study testing tucatinib in patients with HER2-positive disease with or without brain metastases. Patients were randomized to either trastuzumab (Herceptin) and capecitabine or the combination plus tucatinib. Based on the results of the trial, tucatinib could potentially be granted FDA approval in the near future for third-line treatment of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer who have had prior treatment of trastuzumab, pertuzumab (Perjeta) and ado-trastuzumab emtansine (TDM-1; Kadcyla), Murthy says.

Another feature of the ongoing study is continuing the concept that patients with isolated brain progression should continue treatment after central nervous system-directed therapy.