Dr. Robson on Exploratory Analysis From OlympiAD in Breast Cancer

Author(s):

Mark E. Robson, MD, chief, Breast Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses an exploratory analysis of the OlympiAD trial for patients with HER2-negative breast cancer with a germline BRCA1/2 mutation. Robson highlighted these findings in an interview with OncLive during the 35th Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference.

OlympiAD was a randomized phase III trial of olaparib compared with conventional chemotherapy in patients with HER2-negative breast cancer who harbored BRCA1/2 mutations. Results showed that there was a statistically improvement in progression-free survival (PFS). Preservation of quality of life is also seen across subsets, Robson says.

One question following the study, he explained, was whether patients have more of a benefit with olaparib if they have more disease versus less disease. In the exploratory analysis, researchers investigated the PFS in patients who had 1 metastatic site versus more than 1 site. Findings showed that there were similar degrees of benefit in each group.

In those with 1 metastatic site, the median PFS with olaparib was 8.4 months compared with 4.2 months with physician's choice of therapy (TPC; HR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.35-1.13). In patients with ≥2 metastatic sites, the median PFS was 6.5 months with olaparib compared with 3.0 months for TPC, which crossed the barrier for statistical significance (HR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.43-0.82).

These data show that patients with more disease burden do not need to receive chemotherapy and can still be treated with a PARP inhibitor, Robson concludes.