We are always so happy to be able to conclude the year in San Antonio at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The event brings together roughly 10,000 clinicians and scientists from all over the world, including some of the greatest minds in breast cancer research, to share and discuss the latest findings. This year we were excited to share five of our studies.
In addition, we were honored to be able to sponsor the 2023 Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Awards.
PARSIFAL LONG: An Extended Follow Up (5-years) of the PARSIFAL trial
We were delighted that the PARSIFAL LONG results were selected for a Rapid Fire Mini Oral Presentation. Dr. Antonio Llombart-Cussac shared the results of the 5-year extended follow up of the PARSIFAL study which evaluated the optimal endocrine partner for palbociclib for patients with endocrine sensitive, hormone receptor-positive/HER2-negative (HR[+]/HER2[-]) advanced breast cancer in the first-line setting.
The extended analysis revealed that there was still no statistical difference in terms of progression-free survival and overall survival between letrozole or fulvestrant when combined with palbociclib. When the two arms were combined, the median progression-free survival was 33.2 months, and the median overall survival was 65.4 months. These findings are consistent with data for other CDK4/6 inhibitors. The analysis also noted that early progression (< 12 months) on a CDK4/6 inhibitor regimen is a strong clinical marker of a less favorable outcome.
There is additional follow-up planned for PARISFAL with a data cutoff of January 2024.
ATRACTIB trial: Transforming the Landscape for TNBC Patients
We were excited to share the results of the ATRACTIB clinical trial in a Poster Spotlight Session. Dr. María Gion presented the findings of this study that evaluated the efficacy and safety of first-line atezolizumab, bevacizumab, and paclitaxel in patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).
The combination of the anti-PD-L1 atezolizumab and the antiangiogenic bevacizumab with the chemotherapy agent paclitaxel demonstrated significant antitumor activity as first-line therapy for advanced TNBC, with a median progression-free survival of 11 months. Remarkably, 63% of the patients exhibited a positive response to the treatment, resulting in 13 complete responses and 50 partial responses, with a manageable safety profile and no new safety signals.
These results are promising, especially considering most of the patients included in this trial had PD-L1 negative tumors.
DEBBRAH Cohort 5: Shaping the future for HER2[+] and HER2-Low Advanced Breast Cancer with Leptomeningeal Carcinomatosis
We were happy to share the results of Cohort 5 from the DEBBRAH trial, which included HER2[+] or HER2-low advanced breast cancer patients with pathologically confirmed leptomeningeal carcinomatosis treated with trastuzumab deruxtecan.
The results of this cohort, which included 7 patients, were presented by Dr. Marta Vaz Batista and revealed promising antitumor activity of trastuzumab deruxtecan with a median overall survival of 13.3 months. 5 patients (71.4%) achieved a sustained disease stabilization for at least 24 weeks, and the median progression-free survival was 8.9 months.
Moreover, no new safety concerns were reported. Further investigation in a larger cohort is warranted.
MiRaDor Trial: Exploring a Proof-of-Concept
It was great to be able to share the trial design of our proof-of-concept study MiRaDoR, the first MEDSIR trial done in collaboration with Oncoclinicas & Co. and that will have sites open for recruitment in LATAM.
Mario Mancino, Translation Research Department Manager at MEDSIR, presented the poster of this trial.
MiRaDor is a multicenter, open-label, noncomparative phase II trial aiming to monitor minimal residual disease (MRD) through circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to determine treatment efficacy in patients who had HR[+]/HER2[-] early breast cancer and who are at high-risk of relapse. There will be a surveillance phase in which 1260 patients will have their ctDNA monitoring until a positive result, and then a total of 40 patients with positive ctDNA will enter the treatment phase where they will be randomly allocated to 1 of the 4 treatment arms (n=10 per treatment arm). During the treatment arm, patients will have periodic tumor assessments and ctDNA follow-up. The study hopes to demonstrate that monitoring MRD through ctDNA can help determine which patients are at risk of relapse so that treatments can be tailored even before symptoms of relapse emerge.
An exploratory and retrospective analysis of the PARSIFAL trial
We were thrilled that our collaborative study with Reveal Genomics was selected for a poster. Fara Brasó-Maristany presented the results of this exploratory and retrospective analysis of the PARSIFAL trial. DNADX® is a new machine learning tool that classifies patients in different subtypes with prognostic value based on genetic signatures encoded in their ctDNA.
This study aimed to assess the efficacy of DNADX®’s subtypes in predicting prognosis (in terms of PFS and OS) and treatment benefit in patients from the PARSIFAL trial. Baseline liquid biopsies from 122 patients (25.1%) were used to obtain ctDNA, which was then analyzed by DNADX®.
Then, samples with a tumor fraction to 3% (indicating tumor presence) were classified into 1 of the 4 ctDNA-based subtypes or clusters. Cluster-2, Cluster-3, and Cluster-4 were found to have statistically significant higher risk of progression and worst OS rates, compared to patients with a tumor fractio<3%. Additionally, there was a suggested benefit of fulvestrant over letrozole in Cluster 1 and Cluster 4, compared to the other subtypes.
The results of this study suggest that liquid biopsy-based DNADX® subtyping could predict outcomes in patients with HR[+]/HER2[-] advanced breast cancer being treated with first-line endocrine therapy and CDK4/6 inhibitors, potentially identifying the optimal approach.
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Awards
MEDSIR was honored to be a sponsor of the 2023 Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Awards. This event recognized the pioneering work of Dr. Olufunmilayo (Funmi) Olopade, Dr. Daniel Hayes, Dr. Gaorav Gupta, Dr. Sara Tolaney, and patient advocate Patty Spears. In addition, the foundation recognized young oncologists with early careers awards for the ASPIRE trainees and the Career Catalyst Research grantees.
The awardees shared their work in a TEDtalk style and highlighted the importance of remembering that improving the lives of patients is our driving force but also that there is a lot to learn when we include the patient voice in our work.
From MEDSIR we would like to thank the organizers for making this event so special!
MEDSIR on Social Media, don't miss anything!
With so many great presentations and results shared during the conference, MEDSIR worked hard to make sure you don’t miss anything. Head over to our X and Linkedin page to see some of our highlights from SABCS23 and share some of your favorites!
We hope everyone had a wonderful time in San Antonio.
We are so excited for you all to see what we have in store for 2024!
