Eribulin less effective in real-world HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer than in trials

The real-world effectiveness of eribulin in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative metastatic breast cancer is lower than that seen in clinical trials, reveals a study.

“Its benefit seems to be higher in patients with hormonal receptor expression and patients who had received capecitabine prior to eribulin,” the investigators said, noting that the safety profile of the study drug remains satisfactory.

A total of 140 women with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (median age 57 years) were included in this multicentre, retrospective study, which sought to assess the safety and effective of eribulin in a real-world setting.

The median overall survival (OS) was 8.8 months (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 6.1‒11.4), while progression-free survival (PFS) was 2.8 months (95 percent CI, 2.5‒3.1). Notably, a significantly longer PFS was observed among patients with hormonal receptor expression (3.4 months, 95 percent CI, 2.3‒4.5) compared with triple-negative (2.0 months, 95 percent CI, 1.7‒2.3; p=0.003).

In addition, women treated with capecitabine prior to eribulin showed a greater median OS than those who had not received it (9.5 months, 95 percent CI, 6.6‒12.5 vs 4.8 months, 95 percent CI, 3.4‒6.2; p=0.001). When only triple-negative patients were assessed, median OS was 6.5 months (95 percent CI, 0.1‒16.2) for women with prior capecitabine use compared with only 4.3 months (95 percent CI, 2.8‒5.8) for those who had not received it (p=0.006).

The investigators observed an adequate safety profile for eribulin.