Abstract P1-17-06: Impact of body mass index on the efficacy of aromatase inhibitors in patients with metastatic breast cancer
Authors: Patel Rima , Li Zhiqiang , Zimmerman Brittney S. , Fink Marc Y. , Wells Jason D. , Zhou Xiang , Ayers Kristin L. , Redfern Arielle , Newman Scott , Chen Rong , Oh William K. , Tiersten Amy 
Published: March 2022

Background: Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are part of standard endocrine therapy for hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer (BC) and are used in both adjuvant and metastatic settings. Since AIs work by inhibiting the conversion of androgens to estrogen in peripheral adipose tissue, the higher levels of estrogen in obese patients may lead to incomplete inhibition by AIs and influence their efficacy. A retrospective analysis of the ABCSG-12 trial found that overweight premenopausal patients with early-stage BC treated with anastrozole had a 60% increased risk of disease recurrence and more than doubling in risk of death compared with normal weight patients on anastrozole. Similarly, an exploratory analysis from the ATAC trial found that in post-menopausal women with early-stage BC, overall recurrence rates were lower in patients randomized to anastrozole versus tamoxifen but in women with body mass index (BMI) &gt; 30, there was no significant difference in disease recurrence between anastrozole and tamoxifen. While these findings raise concern for the efficacy of adjuvant AI therapy in obese patients with early-stage BC, this has not yet been demonstrated in the metastatic setting. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of BMI on efficacy of AIs in patients with metastatic HR-positive BC. Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of all female patients with metastatic HR-positive BC on an AI in first- or second-line settings and seen at our academic institution between 2001-2020. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS), defined as the time from start of AI to disease progression or death from any cause. PFS was compared across BMI groups using Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests. Cox proportional hazards regression model was used for univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: We identified 219 patients who had received an AI in the first- or second-line settings for metastatic HR-positive BC and with documented information on BMI. The median age was 59 with 45% of patients White, 29% African American, 16% Hispanic/Latino, 5.5% Asian and remainder other/unknown. 32% (71) had HER-2 positive disease. 82% (179) were on an AI in the first-line setting. Overall, 53% were on letrozole, 42% on anastrozole and 5.5% on exemestane. Of the 219 patients, 56% (123) had a low BMI (defined as &lt; 27 kg/m2) and 44% (96) had a high BMI (≥ 27 kg/m2; based on the Breast Cancer Weight Loss [BWEL] trial). The median PFS was 21.9 months (95% CI, 14.5 to 28.4) in the low BMI group versus 20.2 months (95% CI, 14.3 to 27.5) in the high BMI group with no statistically significant difference (p =0.73). There were 8 (6.5%) deaths in the low BMI group and 7 (7.3%) deaths in the high BMI group. Multivariate cox regression model did not demonstrate any significant impact of BMI on PFS when adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, HER2 status, type of AI, line of therapy, drug partner and type of metastatic disease (HR =0.91, 95% CI =0.64 to 1.30, p =0.6 for high BMI group). Subgroup analysis of patients on an AI in the first line setting also did not show a significant difference in PFS with median PFS 19.3 and 18 months in the low and high BMI groups, respectively. Conclusions: In patients on an AI for metastatic HR-positive breast cancer, there was no statistically significant difference in PFS in patients with low versus high BMI. While BMI influences efficacy of AIs in the adjuvant setting, our results demonstrate that in the metastatic setting, BMI does not significantly impact the efficacy of AIs among our patient population. This discrepancy could be due to other differences in disease characteristics that make complete aromatase inhibition more important in the adjuvant setting when disease burden is the lowest. Additional larger studies are needed to confirm this finding.

Citation Format: Rima Patel, Zhiqiang Li, Brittney S. Zimmerman, Marc Y. Fink, Jason D. Wells, Xiang Zhou, Kristin L. Ayers, Arielle Redfern, Scott Newman, Rong Chen, William K. Oh, Amy Tiersten. Impact of body mass index on the efficacy of aromatase inhibitors in patients with metastatic breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-17-06.