ASCO23: trastuzumab deruxtecan proves to be effective on multiple HER-2 expressing tumors
A Phase II clinical trial, recently presented at ASCO (2−6 June, IL, USA), has demonstrated the effectiveness of Enhertu® (trastuzumab deruxtecan) at treating HER2-expressing solid tumors.
The DESTINY-PanTumor02 study, sponsored and designed by Astra Zeneca (Cambridge, UK) in collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo (Tokyo, Japan), focused on the effectiveness of trastuzumab deruxtecan on a variety of solid tumors, including bladder, cervical and pancreatic cancer.
The main aim of the study was to understand whether trastuzumab deruxtecan improved the objective response rate, which is the number of partial and complete responses to the treatment.
A total of 267 patients with advanced HER2-expressing solid tumors were enrolled in the study. All participants had worsened after at least one systemic treatment or had no other treatment options remaining. Patients were each treated with at least one dose of trastuzumab deruxtecan.
Related content:
- Trastuzumab deruxtecan for HER2+ advanced breast cancer
- Multicenter phase II trial of trastuzumab deruxtecan for HER2-positive unresectable or recurrent biliary tract cancer: HERB trial
- Trastuzumab deruxtecan in previously treated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer: Plain language summary of the DESTINY-Breast01 study
After a median follow-up period of 9.7 months, it was found that the objective response rate of the whole sample was 37.1%. This was even higher for patients that expressed higher levels of HER-2 (61.3%). Interestingly, the treatment was effective for patients across all different disease states. The sample of patients with endometrial cancer (57.5%) had the highest ORR, and those with pancreatic cancer had the lowest (4%).
Researchers concluded that trastuzumab deruxtecan could be an effective new treatment for patients with HER-2 expressing solid tumors.
Speaking on these results, the lead author on the study, Funda Meric-Bernstam (TX, USA) explained: “These results advance our clinical understanding of HER2 expression, reaffirm HER2 as an actionable biomarker across a broad range of tumor types, and show that trastuzumab deruxtecan could potentially provide a new treatment option for patients with advanced disease across these tumors, especially in patients with HER2 IHC 3+ or 2+ expression.”
