Dr. Pegram on Margetuximab Plus Chemo in HER2+ Breast Cancer

Mark D. Pegram, MD, director of the Breast Cancer Oncology Program at Stanford Medicine, discusses the ongoing phase II SOPHIA trial, which is comparing the combination of margetuximab plus chemotherapy with trastuzumab (Herceptin) in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

A phase I dose-escalation study of margetuximab presented at a previous ASCO Annual Meeting demonstrated that heavily pretreated HER2-positive solid tumors had responses even during dose escalation with margetuximab as a single agent, Pegram explains. One of the patients had HER2-positive breast cancer with prior progression—even after trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1; Kadcyla)—and still had an objective clinical response to single-agent therapy. While this is anecdotal evidence, Pegram says it is still fairly promising, which bodes well for the outcome of the phase III trial.

There is still a high unmet need in metastatic HER2-positive disease, however, he explains.