PD-L1 Immunotherapy Delayed Triple Negative Breast Cancer Progression

MUNICH— Immunotherapy with the anti programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab in combination with nab-paclitaxel chemotherapy prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) among patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer in the randomized phase three IMpassion130 trial reported at the 2018 annual congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology, ESMO.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1809615?query=featured_home

The experimental treatment also prolonged overall survival (OS) in patients who tested positive for PD-L1—the molecular target of atezolizumab.

Transformative

“For me this is practice-changing. This is a massive step. This is the first time—a clear improvement in overall survival, not just a marginal improvement. We see a transformative benefit of nearly ten months based on survival in the control group of only 15 months. So it’s more than a 50 per cent improvement in overall survival which is a very meaningful result for patients with this difficult-to-treat sub-type of breast cancer.”

So said first author of the IMpassion130 trial Peter Schmid MD PhD, Chair of Oncology at Barts Cancer Institute and Queen Mary University of London and Director of St. Bartholomew’s Breast Cancer Centre in London UK in conversation with the Audio Journal of Oncology.