Datopotamab deruxtecan shows promising results for the patients with triple-negative breast cancer
May 12, 2021
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a type of breast cancer which lack estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and HER-2, three commonly found proteins in other breast cancer; hence triple-negative breast cancer. This means that hormone therapy or HER-2-targeted therapy are not effective for the patients with TNBC, therefore treatment options are very limited. Because of its aggressive nature (grow and spread quickly) and limited treatment options, its prognosis is much worse than that of other types of breast cancer. The patients with metastatic TNBC survive for less than median 2 years, and only 12.2 % of them survive after 5 years from the initial diagnosis.
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In April, 2021, the FDA granted the regular approval to sacituzumab govitecan-hziy (TRODELVY) based on the results of the confirmatory clinical trial, ASCENT (see the post on April 13, 2021), so that TNBC patients have more options to fight cancer.
The preliminary data from the phase 1 TROPION-PanTumor01 trial (NCT03401385) presented in the recent ESMO breast cancer virtual congress 2021 is giving us great hopes to have another effective treatment options for TNBC patients in near future. Like sacituzumab govitecan-hziy, datopotamab deruxtecan is an antibody-drug conjugate, and topoisomerase 1 inhibitor, deruxtecan is attached to a monoclonal antibody drug targeting the protein called Trop-2 in cancer cells. Only when the drug binds to Trop-2 in cancer cells and is taken up into cancer cells, derixtecan is released from the antibody and kills cancer cells. Cancer cells has much higher numbers of Trop-2 than normal and healthy cells, and thus datopotamab deruxtecan can selectively target cancer cells, sparing normal cells.
The phase 1 TROPION-PanTumor01 trial had 21 TNBC patients whose cancer progressed even after more than 4 lines treatments. Out of 21 TNBC patients, 43% of the patients responded to the drug completely or partially, and 95 % of the patients saw either tumor shrinkage or no progression.
The TROPION-PanTumor01 trial is still ongoing and recruiting more patients including hormone receptor positive breast cancer. Please discuss with your oncologist to check your eligibility or please contact us at minji@MJpatientadvocate.com.