Trial Looks to Double Down on Anti-HER2 in Breast Cancer

Both tucatinib (Tukysa) and trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) have been shown to be highly efficacious in the pivotal HER2CLIMB and DESTINY-Breast01 trials, respectively. A new study presented at the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) virtual annual meeting aims to assess if the combination of of the agents in patients with HER2-positive locally advanced/metastatic breast cancer can further improve the efficacy seen with either agent alone.

In this video, courtesy of VJHemOnc, study author Erika Hamilton, MD, director of the Breast Cancer and Gynecologic Cancer Research Program at Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, describes the details of the phase II HER2CLIMB-04 trial.

Following is a transcript of her remarks:

HER2CLIMB-4 was presented by Dr. [Ian E.] Krop here at ASCO 2021. And it’s a really exciting study because it combines two of our newest approved drugs in the HER2 space together into one trial. So obviously I’m talking about tucatinib and trastuzumab deruxtecan here.

And so, trastuzumab deruxtecan is approved third line and beyond for HER2-positive breast cancer and shows an incredibly exciting overall response rate, duration of response, etc. And then tucatinib is also approved, really for second line and beyond, in combination with its partner of capecitabine [Xeloda] and trastuzumab [Herceptin].

Interestingly, a lot of the side effects of the HER2CLIMB regimen actually come from the capecitabine, the chemotherapy backbone partner — hand-foot syndrome, diarrhea, etc.

And so this new trial is looking at the combination of trastuzumab deruxtecan with tucatinib, so you get both of the exciting agents in one trial and drop the traditional chemotherapy backbone of capecitabine.

So we’re particularly excited to enroll to this trial. We’re hoping we’re going to see a really great activity here.

Last Updated July 07, 2021