Abstract GS4-01: Results from CONTESSA: A phase 3 study of tesetaxel plus a reduced dose of capecitabine versus capecitabine alone in patients with HER2-, hormone receptor + (HR+) metastatic breast cancer (MBC) who have previously received a taxane
Authors: O'Shaughnessy Joyce , Schwartzberg Lee , Piccart Martine , Rugo Hope S. , Yardley Denise A , Cortes Javier , Untch Michael , Harbeck Nadia , Wright Gail S. , Bondarenko Igor , Glaspy John , Nowecki Zbigniew , Kayali Fadi , Chan Arlene , Levy Christelle , Liu Mei-Ching , Kim Sung-Bae , Lemieux Julie , Manikhas Alexey , Tolaney Sara , Lim Elaine , Gombos Andrea , Stradella Agostina , Pegram Mark , Fasching Peter , Mangel Laszlo , Semiglazov Vladimir , Dieras Veronique , Gianni Luca , Danso Michael A , Vacirca Jeff , Kroll Stew , O'Connell Joseph , Tang Kevin , Wei Thomas , Seidman Andrew 
Published: February 2021

Objectives: The key objectives of CONTESSA are to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tesetaxel plus a reduced dose of capecitabine as an all-oral regimen versus capecitabine alone in patients with HER2-, HR+ MBC previously treated with a taxane.

Rationale: Tesetaxel is a novel, oral taxane with several properties that make it unique, including: oral administration with a low pill burden; a long (8-day) terminal plasma half-life in humans, enabling infrequent, once-every-3 weeks (Q3W) dosing; no observed hypersensitivity reactions; and significant activity against chemotherapy-resistant breast cancer cell lines. More than 1,000 patients have been treated with tesetaxel in clinical studies. Tesetaxel had encouraging monotherapy activity in a Phase 2 study in 38 patients with HER2-, HR+ MBC, with a confirmed objective response rate (ORR) per RECIST 1.1 of 45% and median progression-free survival (PFS) of 5.4 months (Seidman et al, 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting).

Methodology: CONTESSA is a multinational, multicenter, randomized (1:1), Phase 3 registration study comparing tesetaxel (27 mg/m2 on Day 1 of a 21-day cycle) plus a reduced dose of capecitabine (1,650 mg/m2/day on Days 1-14 of a 21-day cycle) to the approved dose of capecitabine alone (2,500 mg/m2/day on Days 1-14 of a 21-day cycle) in patients with HER2-, HR+ MBC who have received no more than one chemotherapy regimen for advanced disease and have received a taxane in the (neo)adjuvant setting. There was no restriction on the disease-free interval following taxane therapy. The primary endpoint is PFS assessed by an Independent Radiologic Review Committee (IRC). CONTESSA was designed with 90% power to detect a 2.5-month improvement in median PFS (HR=0.71). Secondary endpoints are overall survival (OS), ORR and disease control rate.

Results: CONTESSA, which enrolled 685 patients, met the primary endpoint of improved PFS as assessed by the IRC. Median PFS was 9.8 months for tesetaxel plus a reduced dose of capecitabine versus 6.9 months for capecitabine alone, an improvement of 2.9 months [HR=0.716 (95% CI: 0.573-0.895); p=0.003]. ORR was 57% for tesetaxel plus a reduced dose of capecitabine versus 41% for capecitabine alone (p=0.0002). OS data are immature. Tesetaxel plus capecitabine was associated with a manageable side effect profile consistent with previous clinical studies. Grade ≥3 treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) that occurred in ≥5% of patients (tesetaxel plus capecitabine vs. capecitabine alone) were: neutropenia (71.2% vs. 8.3%); diarrhea (13.4% vs. 8.9%); hand-foot syndrome (6.8% vs. 12.2%); febrile neutropenia (12.8% vs. 1.2%); fatigue (8.6% vs. 4.5%); hypokalemia (8.6% vs. 2.7%); leukopenia (10.1% vs. 0.9%); and anemia (8.0% vs. 2.1%). TEAEs resulting in treatment discontinuation in ≥1% of patients (tesetaxel plus capecitabine vs. capecitabine alone) were: neutropenia or febrile neutropenia (4.2% vs. 1.5%); neuropathy (3.6% vs. 0.3%); diarrhea (0.9% vs. 1.5%); and hand-foot syndrome (0.6% vs. 2.1%). Treatment discontinuation due to any adverse event occurred in 23.1% of patients treated with tesetaxel plus capecitabine versus 11.9% of patients treated with capecitabine alone. Grade 2 alopecia occurred in 8.0% of patients treated with tesetaxel plus capecitabine versus 0.3% of patients treated with capecitabine alone. Grade ≥3 neuropathy occurred in 5.9% of patients treated with tesetaxel plus capecitabine versus 0.9% of patients treated with capecitabine alone.

Conclusion: An all-oral regimen of tesetaxel plus a reduced dose of capecitabine significantly improved PFS versus capecitabine alone. Neutropenia was the most frequent Grade ≥3 TEAE. Rates of clinically significant alopecia and neuropathy were low.

Citation Format: Joyce O'Shaughnessy, Lee Schwartzberg, Martine Piccart, Hope S. Rugo, Denise A Yardley, Javier Cortes, Michael Untch, Nadia Harbeck, Gail S. Wright, Igor Bondarenko, John Glaspy, Zbigniew Nowecki, Fadi Kayali, Arlene Chan, Christelle Levy, Mei-Ching Liu, Sung-Bae Kim, Julie Lemieux, Alexey Manikhas, Sara Tolaney, Elaine Lim, Andrea Gombos, Agostina Stradella, Mark Pegram, Peter Fasching, Laszlo Mangel, Vladimir Semiglazov, Veronique Dieras, Luca Gianni, Michael A Danso, Jeff Vacirca, Stew Kroll, Joseph O'Connell, Kevin Tang, Thomas Wei, Andrew Seidman. Results from CONTESSA: A phase 3 study of tesetaxel plus a reduced dose of capecitabine versus capecitabine alone in patients with HER2-, hormone receptor + (HR+) metastatic breast cancer (MBC) who have previously received a taxane [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 GS4-01.