Dr. Jhaveri on Implications of the DESTINY-Breast03 Trial in HER2+ Breast Cancer

Komal Jhaveri, MD, FACP, medical oncologist, associate member, Breast Medicine and Early Drug Development Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the implications of data from the phase 3 DESTINY-Breast03 trial (NCT03529110) in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Results from DESTINY-Breast03 demonstrated fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu) elicited superior progression-free survival (PFS) compared with ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla; T-DM1) in patients with previously treated HER2-positive breast cancer. The results showed a hazard ratio for PFS of 0.28 (P = 7.8 x 10^–22), which is unheard of with any treatment that has been approved for breast cancer, Jhaveri says.

Moreover, the adjudication of guidelines for managing interstitial lung disease and pneumonitis, which were notable adverse effects (AEs) observed in the phase 2 DESTINY-Breast01 trial (NCT03248492), helped reduce instances of these AEs in DESTINY-Breast03, Jhaveri notes. No fatal AEs were reported in the phase 3 trial, as clinicians improved the ability to identify and monitor patients most susceptible to these toxicities, Jhaveri concludes.