Key clinical point: Lapatinib demonstrated excellent survival outcomes in patients with small, node-negative, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer (BC), when used in combination with trastuzumab, but not when used as a substitute for trastuzumab.
Major finding: The 7-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate in the overall cohort was excellent (88.1%), with improved DFS outcomes observed in the trastuzumab (89.6%), trastuzumab followed by lapatinib (89.0%), and trastuzumab+lapatinib (89.1%) arms, but not as much in the lapatinib-only arm (84.3%; stratified log-rank P = .031).
Study details : Findings are from a subanalysis of the phase 3 ALTTO trial including 2821 patients with small (pathological tumor size ≤ 3 cm) , lymph node-negative, early HER2+ BC who were randomly assigned to receive adjuvant therapy with trastuzumab, lapatinib, trastuzumab followed by lapatinib, or trastuzumab+lapatinib.
Disclosures: The ALTTO trial received funding from GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis Pharma AG, and other sources. Two authors declared being employees of and owning stocks in Novartis. The other authors reported ties with several sources, including Novartis.
Source: Nader-Marta G et al. Outcomes of patients with small and node-negative HER2-positive early breast cancer treated with adjuvant chemotherapy and anti-HER2 therapy-a sub-analysis of the ALTTO study. Br J Cancer. 2022 (Sep 1). Doi: 10.1038/s41416-022-01963-8