Disease-free survival doubles for patients treated with immunoconjugate TDM-1 for their HER-2 positive metastatic breast cancers

AMSTERDAM—Women with HER-2 positive metastatic breast cancer had significantly improved time to progression with fewer side effects after treatment with the antibody-drug conjugate T-DM1 compared to conventional therapies in the phase three TH3RESA study presented to the 2013 European Cancer Congress here.
Outcome data were announced from 602 women — selected for study because they had disease progression despite treatment with a taxane and at least two HER2-directed therapies (including trastuzumab and lapatinib) — who were randomized to treatment with either: a regimen of their physicians choice or T-DM1 — the drug combining trastuzumab with emtansine.
Professor Hans Wildiers MD PhD from the University Hospitals Multidisciplinary Breast Centre in Leuven, Belgium, described the combination drug as a ‘silver bullet’ — having a cancer-seeking arm linked to a cell-killing molecule. He said the data reaffirm the potential of T-DM1 as a treatment for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer — demonstrating that the drug has the potential to be a new treatment paradigm for this group of patients who currently have few options.