Trodelvy Lengthens Time to Disease Progression in Metastatic Breast Cancer

Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy) improved the average time patients lived until their disease got worse — known as progression-free survival — in patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer compared to chemotherapy, according to findings from the phase 3 TROPiCS-02 clinical trial.

TROPiCS-02 was a phase 3 clinical trial that included 543 patients with metastatic breast cancer who were previously treated with a CDK4/6 inhibitor, endocrine therapy and two to four prior lines of chemotherapy, according to a press release from Gilead, the drug’s manufacturer. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either Trodelvy or physician’s choice of chemotherapy (eribulin, capecitabine, gemcitabine or vinorelbine).

Findings, which will be presented at the 2022 ESMO Congress, showed that the average progression-free survival for patients with HER2-low metastatic breast cancer was 6.4 months with Trodelvy compared to 4.2 months chemotherapy.

In the HER2-negative group, the average progression-free survival was five months and 3.4 months for the Trodelvy and chemotherapy arms, respectively.

Trodelvy, a targeted therapy that seeks out and attacks cancer cells while leaving other cells relatively unharmed, also improved progression-free survival in the overall study population. The average progression-free survival in the group of patients who received Trodelvy was 5.5 months compared to four months in the chemotherapy group.

“These data demonstrate Trodelvy’s efficacy across HER2-low and (HER2-negative) status in pretreated metastatic breast cancer patients in the TROPiCS-02 trial,” said Dr. Peter Schmid, director, professor of cancer medicine and center lead of the Centre of Experimental Cancer Medicine at Barts Breast Cancer Center at Queen Mary University London, in the release.

Schmid explained that Trodelvy could be a promising option for patients with breast cancer whose disease stops responding to certain prior treatments.

“Once patients have developed resistance to endocrine-based therapies, their prognosis is extremely poor,” Schmid said. “The results highlight the potential for Trodelvy as a treatment option for people living with pre-treated HR-positive/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer regardless of their HER2-negative status.”

Trodelvy, which targets the Trop-2 antigen commonly found on breast cancer cells, was previously approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of patients with triple-negative breast cancer.

“Trodelvy is already transforming the standard of care in second-line metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, and we’re excited about its potential in other breast cancers where there is significant need for new treatment options,” Dr. Bill Grossman, senior vice president and therapeutic head at Gilead Oncology, said in the release.

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