Dr. Mitri Discusses the Promise of Trastuzumab Biosimilars

Zahi Mitri, MD, MS, assistant professor of medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, discusses the promise of trastuzumab (Herceptin) biosimilars.

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology showed that neoadjuvant therapy with a trastuzumab biosimilar was safe, well tolerated, and there was no difference in the pathology of complete response. Mitri says that this is exciting, as it may cut the cost of treatment—which is important in the current healthcare climate.

There are many studies looking at multiple biosimilars for trastuzumab. In HER2-positive breast cancer, adding MYL-1401O (Ogivri; trastuzumab-dkst) to a taxane as initial therapy followed by MYL-1401O monotherapy as maintenance produced a nearly identical progression-free survival rate at 48 weeks compared with trastuzumab in patients.

Although, Mitri notes that there has been considerably more excitement in Europe for the trastuzumab biosimilars than in the US. If biosimilars are safe, well tolerated, and the efficacy is the same, Mitri says that the US will adopt biosimilars for cancer treatment in the near future.