APHINITY CLINICAL TRIAL SHOWS PROMISING EARLY RESULTS

Early data from the APHINITY clinical trial has found that the combination of the new drug pertuzumab (Perjeta) with Herceptin and chemotherapy, reduces the risk of breast cancer returning in people with HER2-positive breast cancer, compared to trastuzumab (Herceptin) and chemotherapy alone.

After three years of therapy, 94.1% of people treated with the Perjeta-based regimen did not have their breast cancer return compared to 93.2% with Herceptin and chemotherapy alone – a margin of 0.9%.

The results were announced at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, USA.

Over 4,000 women were involved in this international trial worldwide, including 128 from Australia and New Zealand. The APHINITY clinical trial was led by the Breast International Group and conducted in Australia and New Zealand by the Australia and New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group (ANZBCTG). The ANZBCTG Study Chair of the APHINITY clinical trial is Associate Professor Nicholas Wilcken.

Following initial treatment with surgery, the standard of care in the treatment of HER2-positive early breast cancer is chemotherapy and the drug trastuzumab (Herceptin). This treatment was proven effective by earlier research such as the HERA clinical trial, which found that treatment with Herceptin improved breast cancer free survival by approximately one third in women with HER2-positive breast cancer.

The APHINITY study tested whether adding the new antibody treatment pertuzumab (Perjeta) to this standard therapy could further reduce the risk of cancer returning in women with early HER2-positive breast cancer.

“The results show that the new treatment does reduce the risk of cancer recurrence by about a fifth (19%). However, at this early stage with very short follow-up this would only translate into a small difference for most women. While we would expect to see larger benefits over time, our current gold standard therapy gives exceptionally good long term results,” said Associate Professor Wilcken.

“Although it is always exciting to find new treatments that work, a highlight of this study was just how good our current treatment is. We will continue to monitor these trial participants with longer-term follow up, which will provide further insights into this combination treatment.”

The ANZBCTG is the largest, independent, oncology clinical trials research group in Australia and New Zealand. For almost 40 years, the ANZBCTG has conducted a national clinical trials research program for the treatment, prevention and cure of breast cancer. The ANZBCTG fundraising department is the Breast Cancer Institute of Australia.

For more information please contact:

Anna Fitzgerald, ANZBCTG Communications Manager