Dr. Marks on PHENIX Trial Data in HER2+ Breast Cancer

Douglas K. Marks, MD, clinical instructor, Department of Medicine, Perlmutter Cancer Center, NYU Langone Health, discusses data from a small subset of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer enrolled in the PHENIX trial, which was presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

In the PHENIX study, researchers looked at pyrotinib combined with capecitabine (Xeloda) versus capecitabine alone; results showed that there was a significant improvement in progression-free survival and response rate in the pyrotinib/capecitabine arm, explains Marks.

Although the data was compelling, especially for patients with brain metastases, according to Marks, the study design is unlike other trials. The comparator arm did not include a HER2-directed therapy; rather, it explored capecitabine alone, which is atypical.