Abstract PD3-04: Prognostic role of distant disease-free interval from completion of adjuvant trastuzumab in HER2-positive early breast cancer: Analysis from the ALTTO (BIG 2-06) trial
Authors: Lambertini Matteo , Agbor-Tarh Dominique , Metzger-Filho Otto , Ponde Noam , Poggio Francesca , Hilbers Florentine , Korde Larissa A , Chumsri Saranya , Werner Olena , Del Mastro Lucia , Caparica Rafael , Moebus Volker , Moreno-Aspitia Alvaro , Piccart Martine , de Azambuja Evandro 
Published: February 2021

Background: In HER2-positive breast cancer patients, timing from the end of (neo)adjuvant trastuzumab (T)-based therapy to diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer is the key factor in determining the optimal first-line treatment. There is currently lack of clear evidence to support the possible prognostic role of this interval and 12 months has been mostly empirically used. The present analysis aimed to investigate patterns of relapse, first-line choice and survival outcomes of patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer who relapsed after adjuvant T-based therapy depending on T-free interval (TFI, i.e. timing from end of adjuvant T to diagnosis of distant metastases).

Methods: In ALTTO, HER2-positive early breast cancer patients were randomized to 1 year of either T alone, lapatinib (L) alone, their sequence (T–&gt;L) or their combination (T+L). This exploratory analysis included only pts in the T or T+L arms who experienced a distant disease-free survival (DDFS) event. Two cohorts of patients were defined depending on TFI: group A (TFI of &lt;12 months) and group B (&gt;12 months). Baseline characteristics, patterns of relapse, first-line choice and overall survival (OS) were compared. OS was defined as time between date of DDFS event to death; age at diagnosis, tumor size and hormone receptor status were the variables included in the final multivariate models.

Results: Out of 8,381 patients included in ALTTO, 404 patients in the T and T+L arms developed a DDFS event, of whom 201 occurred &lt;12 months (group A) and 203 &gt;12 months (group B) after the end of adjuvant T. Patients in group A were older (p=0.013), had larger tumors (p=0.004) and more frequently hormone receptor-negative disease (p&lt;0.001). No significant difference in patterns of first DDFS event was observed (p=0.073); however, a numerically higher number of patients in group A compared to group B developed brain metastasis (26% vs. 15%). First-line anti-HER2 therapy was received by 57% of the patients. Choice of first-line anti-HER2 therapy was different between the two groups (p=0.022): the majority of patients received T in both groups (61% vs. 65% in groups A and B, respectively), while more patients in group A received L (25% vs. 11%) and less received pertuzumab (8% vs. 17%). OS survival was significantly shorter in group A compared to group B: median OS was 18.4 and 29.3 months in groups A and B, respectively (adjusted HR 0.69; 95% CI 0.54-0.89; p=0.004). Similar results were observed after the exclusion of patients treated with first-line pertuzumab-based therapy (n=29): median OS was 18.2 and 26.8 months in groups A and B, respectively (adjusted HR 0.66; 95% CI 0.51-0.86; p=0.002). Better outcomes in terms of OS for patients in group B was observed across all analyzed subgroups with no interaction according to hormone receptor status (p=0.814) nor type of adjuvant anti-HER2 treatment (p=0.233): hormone receptor-positive (adjusted HR 0.69; 95% CI 0.48-0.99), hormone receptor-negative (adjusted HR 0.68; 95% CI 0.48-0.98), T+L arm (adjusted HR 0.55; 95% CI 0.38-0.80) and T arm (adjusted HR 0.80; 95% CI 0.55-1.17).

Conclusions: In the ALTTO trial, HER2-positive early breast cancer patients who experienced shorter TFI (i.e. &lt;12 months vs. &gt;12 months) following adjuvant T-based therapy had inferior OS after the diagnosis of distant recurrence. Given its prognostic value, TFI can help to individualize clinical recommendations and to design future trials in the metastatic setting for patients relapsing after prior exposure to anti-HER2 therapy for early disease.

Citation Format: Matteo Lambertini, Dominique Agbor-Tarh, Otto Metzger-Filho, Noam Ponde, Francesca Poggio, Florentine Hilbers, Larissa A Korde, Saranya Chumsri, Olena Werner, Lucia Del Mastro, Rafael Caparica, Volker Moebus, Alvaro Moreno-Aspitia, Martine Piccart, Evandro de Azambuja. Prognostic role of distant disease-free interval from completion of adjuvant trastuzumab in HER2-positive early breast cancer: Analysis from the ALTTO (BIG 2-06) trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Virtual Symposium; 2020 Dec 8-11; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PD3-04.