Dr. Tripathy on the Treatment of Patients With MBC

Debu Tripathy, MD, co-leader, Women's Cancer Program, University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses advances in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.

The use of eribulin in combination with trastuzumab is of particular interest in this space. Patients with HER2-positive disease are now being treated with pertuzumab and trastuzumab in the first line followed by T-DM1. This group of patients may also receive lapatinib, capecitabine, or lapatinib and trastuzumab at some point.

Tripathy says many patients are candidates for further therapy, however, as they remain in good shape and could potentially respond to other treatments.

Data on eribulin in combination with trastuzumab has been presented and showed a response rate of about 70%. This combination may add to an oncologist’s armamentarium.