Real-world data on the efficacy and safety of weekly oral vinorelbine in breast cancer patients previously treated with anthracycline or taxane-based regimens

Efficacy and Safety of Chidamide in Combination with PD-1 Inhibitor and Radiotherapy for HER2-Negative Advanced Breast Cancer: Study Protocol of a Single Arm Prospective Study

Purpose

As one of the most important breakthroughs in cancer therapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors have greatly prolonged survival of patients with breast cancer. However, their application and efficacy are limited, especially for advanced HER2-negative breast cancer. It has been reported that epigenetic modulation of the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor chidamide, as well as immune microenvironment modulation of radiotherapy are potentially synergistic with immunotherapy. Thus, the combination of chidamide, radiotherapy and immunotherapy is expected to improve prognosis of patients with advanced HER2-negative breast cancer.

Patients and Methods

This is a single-arm, open, prospective clinical trial investigating the efficacy and safety of the combination of HDAC inhibitor chidamide, anti-PD-1 antibody sintilimab, and the novel immuno-radiotherapy, which aims to enhance efficacy of immunotherapy, in subsequent lines of therapy of HER2-negative breast cancer. Our study will include 35 patients with advanced breast cancer that has failed endocrine therapy and first-line chemotherapy. Participants will receive 30 mg of chidamide twice a week, 200 mg of sintilimab once every 3 weeks, combined with immuno-radiotherapy. Radiotherapy will be centrally 8 Gy for at least one lesion, and at least 1 Gy for the other lesions. We will complete three fractions of radiotherapy in one cycle. The primary endpoint is progression-free survival, and secondary endpoints are objective response rate, disease control rate and safety. Moreover, biomarkers including cytokines and lymphocyte subgroups will be explored.

Conclusion

As a single-arm clinical trial, the analysis of the influence of each single treatment is limited. Besides, our study is an open study, which involves neither randomization nor blinding. In spite of the abovementioned limitations, this prospective clinical trial will give an insight into subsequent lines of therapy of HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, prolong the survival or achieve long remission for these participants, and identify potential responders.

The efficiency and safety of low-dose apatinib combined with oral vinorelbine in pretreated HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer

BACKGROUND

Apatinib is an oral small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor that blocks vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2. Oral vinorelbine is a semisynthetic chemotherapeutic agent of vinorelbine alkaloids. Apatinib and oral vinorelbine have been proved to be effective in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer (mBC). At present, several small sample clinical trials have explored the efficacy of apatinib combined with oral vinorelbine in the treatment of mBC.

METHODS

This retrospective study included 100 human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2)-negative mBC patients who received low-dose apatinib (250 mg orally per day) plus oral vinorelbine until disease progression or intolerance during February 2017 and March 2023. The progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), clinical benefit rate (CBR), disease control rate (DCR), and safety were analyzed by SPSS 26.0 software and GraphPad Prism 8 software. Cox proportional hazards regression model for univariate and multivariate was used to identify factors significantly related to PFS and OS.

RESULTS

The median follow-up time for this study was 38.1 months. Among 100 patients with HER2-negative mBC, 66 were hormone receptor (HR)-positive/HER2-negative and 34 were triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The median PFS and OS were 6.0 months (95% CI, 5.2-6.8 months) and 23.0 months (95% CI, 19.9-26.1 months). There were no statistical differences in PFS (p = 0.239) and OS (p = 0.762) between the HR-positive /HER2-negative and TNBC subgroups. The ORR, CBR, and DCR were 21.0%, 58.0%, and 78.0%, respectively. Ninety-five patients (95.0%) experienced varying grades of adverse events (AEs) and 38.0% of patients for Grades 3-4. The most common Grades 3-4 AEs that we observed were neutropenia (30.0%) and leukopenia (25.0%).

CONCLUSION

Low-dose apatinib combined with oral vinorelbine demonstrates potential efficacy and well tolerated for pretreated HER2-negative mBC.

Oral Etoposide and Trastuzumab Use for HER2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Retrospective Study from the Institut Curie Hospitals

BACKGROUND

The TOP2A and ERBB2 genes are co-amplified in about 40% of HER2 positive (HER2+) breast cancers. Oral etoposide (VP16), an inhibitor of topoisomerase-II (encoded by TOP2A), has demonstrated clinical activity in metastatic breast cancer (MBC). The benefit of oral VP16 combined with trastuzumab (VP16-T) in HER2+ MBC has not yet been evaluated.

METHODS

Patients treated at the Institut Curie Hospitals with VP16-T for HER2+ MBC were retrieved by an in silico search. Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), response rate, prolonged PFS (defined as at least 6 months), clinical benefit, and toxicity were assessed. The co-amplification of ERBB2 and TOP2A was assessed by shallow whole genome sequencing on tumor tissue whenever available.

RESULTS

Forty-three patients received VP16-T after a median number of six prior treatment lines for HER2+ MBC. Median PFS and OS were 2.9 months (95% CI [2.4-4.7]) and 11.3 months (95% CI [8.3-25.0]), respectively. Three patients had a complete response, while 12/40 (30%) experienced clinical benefit. Only three patients stopped treatment for toxicity. Seven (35%) patients displayed a TOP2A/ERBB2 co-amplification. No statistically significant correlation was found between outcome and TOP2A/ERBB2 co-amplification.

CONCLUSION

Our analysis suggests a favorable efficacy and toxicity profile for VP16-T in patients with heavily pretreated HER2+ MBC.

Phase II study of metronomic treatment with daily oral vinorelbine as first-line chemotherapy in patients with advanced/metastatic HR+/HER2- breast cancer resistant to endocrine therapy: VinoMetro-AGO-B-046

Purpose

Metronomic chemotherapy (MCT) is an increasingly used treatment option in hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2−) advanced/metastatic breast cancer (MBC) after failure of endocrine-based therapies.

Methods

VinoMetro was a multicentre, open-label, single-arm, phase II study of metronomic oral vinorelbine (VRL; 30 mg/day) as a first-line chemotherapy (CT) in patients with HR+/HER2− MBC after endocrine failure. The primary endpoint was the clinical benefit rate (CBR) at 24 weeks.

Results

Between January 2017 and April 2019, nine patients were enrolled. The CBR was 22.2% (90% confidence interval [CI] 4.1–55.0), p = 0.211. The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 12.0 weeks (95% CI 11.3–12.7). Grade 3–4 adverse events (AEs) occurred in 22.2% of patients. One patient died of febrile neutropenia.

Conclusion

VinoMetro (AGO-B-046) was closed early after nine patients and occurrence of one grade 5 toxicity in agreement with the lead institutional review board (IRB). Metronomic dosing of oral VRL in HR+/HER2− MBC as first-line CT after failure of endocrine therapies showed only limited benefit in this population.

Trial registration number and date of registration

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03007992; December 15, 2016.

Chemotherapy Options beyond the First Line in HER-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer

Despite the recent advances in the biological understanding of breast cancer (BC), chemotherapy still represents a key component in the armamentarium for this disease. Different agents are available as mono-chemotherapy options in patients with locally advanced or metastatic BC (MBC) who progress after a first- and second-line treatment with anthracyclines and taxanes. However, no clear indication exists on what the best option is in some populations, such as heavily pretreated, elderly patients, triple-negative BC (TNBC), and those who do not respond to the first-line therapy. In this article, we summarize available literature evidence on different chemotherapy agents used beyond the first-line, in locally advanced or MBC patients, including rechallenge with anthracyclines and taxanes, antimetabolite and antimicrotubule agents, such as vinorelbine, capecitabine, eribulin, ixabepilone, and the newest developed agents, such as vinflunine, irinotecan, and etirinotecan.

Kinase shRNA screening reveals that TAOK3 enhances microtubule-targeted drug resistance of breast cancer cells via the NF-κB signaling pathway

BACKGROUND

Chemotherapy is currently one of the most effective treatments for advanced breast cancer. Anti-microtubule agents, including taxanes, eribulin and vinca-alkaloids are one of the primary major anti-breast cancer chemotherapies; however, chemoresistance remains a problem that is difficult to solve. We aimed to discover novel candidate protein targets to combat chemoresistance in breast cancer.

METHODS

A lentiviral shRNA-based high-throughput screening platform was designed and developed to screen the global kinome to find new therapeutic targets in paclitaxel-resistant breast cancer cells. The phenotypes were confirmed with alternative expression in vitro and in vivo. Molecular mechanisms were investigated using global phosphoprotein arrays and expression microarrays. Global microarray analysis was performed to determine TAOK3 and genes that induced paclitaxel resistance.

RESULTS

A serine/threonine kinase gene, TAOK3, was identified from 724 screened kinase genes. TAOK3 shRNA exhibited the most significant reduction in IC50 values in response to paclitaxel treatment. Ectopic downregulation of TAOK3 resulted in paclitaxel-resistant breast cancer cells sensitize to paclitaxel treatment in vitro and in vivo. The expression of TAOK3 also was correlated to sensitivity to two other anti-microtubule drugs, eribulin and vinorelbine. Our TAOK3-modulated microarray analysis indicated that NF-κB signaling played a major upstream regulation role. TAOK3 inhibitor, CP43, and shRNA of NF-κB both reduced the paclitaxel resistance in TAOK3 overexpressed cells. In clinical microarray databases, high TAOK3 expressed breast cancer patients had poorer prognoses after adjuvant chemotherapy.

CONCLUSIONS

Here we identified TAOK3 overexpression increased anti-microtubule drug resistance through upregulation of NF-κB signaling, which reduced cell death in breast cancer. Therefore, inhibition of the interaction between TAOK3 and NF-κB signaling may have therapeutic implications for breast cancer patients treated with anti-microtubule drugs. Video abstract.