Sacituzumab Govitecan Treats Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

THURSDAY, April 22, 2021 (HealthDay News) — For patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, sacituzumab govitecan treatment is associated with longer progression-free and overall survival compared with single-agent chemotherapy, according to a study published in the April 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Aditya Bardia, M.D., from the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston, and colleagues conducted a randomized, phase 3 trial in 468 patients with relapsed or refractory metastatic triple-negative breast cancer without brain metastases to compare sacituzumab govitecan with single-agent chemotherapy of the physician’s choice (eribulin, vinorelbine, capecitabine, or gemcitabine; 235 and 233 patients, respectively).

The researchers found that median progression-free survival was 5.6 and 1.7 months with sacituzumab govitecan and with chemotherapy, respectively (hazard ratio for disease progression or death, 0.41). The median overall survival was 12.1 and 6.7 months with sacituzumab govitecan and with chemotherapy, respectively (hazard ratio for death, 0.48). The corresponding percentages of patients with an objective response were 35 and 5 percent. Key treatment-related adverse events of grade 3 or higher included neutropenia in 51 and 33 percent of those receiving sacituzumab govitecan and chemotherapy, respectively; corresponding values were 10 and 5 percent for leukopenia and 10 and <1 percent for diarrhea. Three deaths owing to adverse events were reported in each group; no deaths were considered related to sacituzumab govitecan treatment.

“The benefit with sacituzumab govitecan was seen in all clinical and prespecified subgroups, including patients who received previous treatment with programmed death 1 or programmed death ligand 1 inhibitors,” the authors write.

The study was funded by Immunomedics, a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences, the manufacturer of sacituzumab govitecan.

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