New Kisqali data shows consistent overall survival benefit across genomic and clinical subtypes of interest in HR+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer.- Novartis

The findings will be presented as a late-breaking oral presentation at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).

“The overall survival benefit seen even in HER2-enriched adds to the body of evidence supporting the need to test the hypothesis that ribociclib may alter tumor biology, resulting in a better response to ET across common HR+/HER2- subtypes,” said Aleix Prat, President of SOLTI, Head of the Medical Oncology Department at Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, Head of the Translational Genomics Group and Targeted Therapies in Solid Tumors at IDIBAPS and Professor of Medicine at the University of Barcelona. “One of the most interesting aspects of these ribociclib data is the overall survival benefit seen across the spectrum of indolent, less proliferative disease compared to the aggressive and ET-resistant disease, assuring the overall survival benefit of ribociclib in patients regardless of their baseline prognosis.”

A broad ad hoc exploratory analysis of nearly 1,000 tumor samples showed that Kisqali in combination with ET consistently provided significant OS benefit compared to ET alone across main intrinsic subtypes (Luminal A: n=542; HR=0.75; 95% CI: 0.58-0.96; p=.021; Luminal B: n=278; HR=0.69; 95% CI: 0.50-0.95; p=.023; and HER2-enriched: n=147; HR=0.60; 95% CI: 0.40-0.92; p=.018). Patients with the HER2-enriched subtype associated with endocrine resistance and poor prognosis in HR+/HER2- breast cancer, achieved a significant improvement in median OS of 40.3 months compared to 29.4 months for ET alone.

The longest survival benefit from Kisqali plus ET was seen in patients with the luminal A subtype, who achieved a median OS of 68.0 months compared to 54.6 months on ET alone. Patients with basal-like subtype, which is known to behave more like triple-negative breast cancer, had poorer OS outcomes in both the Kisqali combination and ET alone groups with a median OS of 19.4 months and 21.2 months, respectively (n=30; HR=1.89; 95% CI: 0.80-4.47; p=.148). These data follow the biomarker analysis of the MONALEESA trials presented at SABCS 2020 and published in Journal of Clinical Oncology, in which Kisqali demonstrated-progression free survival (PFS) benefit across the most common intrinsic subtypes in metastatic breast cancer.

The four intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer (Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2-enriched and basal-like) have revealed critical differences in terms of incidence, survival and response to treatment11-15. Additionally, the insights provided by genomic intrinsic subtypes complement and expand upon the information provided by standard clinical parameters and pathological markers.

“The consistent overall survival data presented at SABCS again show the unique profile of Kisqali, reinforcing the scientific rationale for initiating HARMONIA, the first Phase III, head-to-head trial evaluating Kisqali versus Ibrance in HR+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer,” said Susanne Schaffert, PhD, President of Novartis Oncology. “We know that for people living with metastatic breast cancer, quality of life in addition to extending life is so important to them, so we are excited to share meaningful outcomes from a global quality of life assessment.”

Novartis is continuing to reimagine cancer with additional trials of Kisqali. NATALEE is a large confirmatory clinical trial of Kisqali with endocrine therapy in the adjuvant treatment of HR+/HER2- early breast cancer being conducted in collaboration with Translational Research In Oncology (TRIO)22. Novartis is collaborating with the Akershus University Hospital in Norway on the NEOLETRIB-trial, a neoadjuvant phase II trial studying the effects of Kisqali in HR+/HER2- early breast cancer including effects on the gut microbiota and senescence. Novartis is also collaborating with SOLTI, who is leading the Phase III HARMONIA clinical trial evaluating Kisqali compared to palbociclib in patients with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer with aggressive tumor biology, defined as HER2-enriched.

See- Carey L et al. "Correlative analysis of overall survival by intrinsic subtype across the MONALEESA-2, -3, and -7 studies of ribociclib + endocrine therapy in patients with HR+/HER2? advanced breast cancer". Presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, December 7-10, 2021. Abstract #GS2-00.