Dr. Dang on the DESTINY-Breast01 Trial in HER2+ Metastatic Breast Cancer

Chau Dang, MD, medical oncologist, chief, West Harrison Medical Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the evaluation of the efficacy of fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu; DS-8201) in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer in the DESTINY-Breast01 trial.

Fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki is a potent antibody-drug conjugate with a payload at an 8:1 ratio from drug to antibody, explains Dang. This heavily pretreated patient population was found to have a response rate of about 60%. Additionally, the median progression-free survival was 16 months and the median overall survival has not been reached.

A small subgroup of patients with brain metastases participated in the trial and results are pending regarding the activity of fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki in this patient population, says Dang.

The most prominent adverse event is interstitial lung disease, which is currently being investigated in terms of monitoring and managing patients. Overall, patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer should be receiving fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki in the third-line space, concludes Dang.