No abstract

Background: Despite several studies, the impact of adding platinum on long-term outcomes in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has not been definitively established. We conducted a single-centre randomized phase III trial to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of adding platinum to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy in these patients. Methods: Patients with histopathological diagnosis of TNBC without evidence of distant metastases who were planned to be treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) were randomized to experimental or control arms after stratification by menopausal status (premenopausal or perimenopausal, and postmenopausal) and stage [operable breast cancer (OBC, clinical T1-3, N0-1, M0), and locally advanced breast cancer (LABC, cT4 or N2-3, M0)]. NACT in control arm included paclitaxel 100 mg/m2 once per week for 8 weeks followed by doxorubicin (60 mg/m2) or epirubicin (90 mg/m2) plus cyclophosphamide (600 mg/m2) once every 21 days for 4 cycles while in experimental arm carboplatin (area-under-curve 2) was added once per week for 8 weeks with paclitaxel. After NACT patients received standard surgery for primary tumor and axillary lymph nodes (LN) followed by radiotherapy. The primary endpoint was disease-free survival (DFS) and the secondary endpoints were overall survival (OS), pathological complete response (pCR, absence of invasive cancer from breast and LN), and toxicity. Results: Between April 2010 and January 2020, 720 (355 control, 365 experimental) patients with a median age of 46 (25-69) years [< 50 years, 502 (69.7%), premenopausal 418 (58.2%)], were included in the study, of whom 285 (39.6%) had OBC and 435 (60.4%) had LABC, with a median clinical tumor size of 6.0 (1.2- 20.0) cm. At a median follow-up of 67.6 (18.9-142.2) months, in the experimental and control arms, the 5-year DFS were 70.6% (95% CI 65.7-75.5%) and 64.5% (95% CI 59.4-69.6%), respectively (HR 0.79, 95% CI 0.61-1.02, p=0.073), 5-year OS were 74.0 (95% CI 69.3-78.7%) and 66.7% (95% CI 61.6-71.8%), respectively (HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.57-0.98, p=0.034), and pCR were 55.2% (95% CI 49.7-69.5%) and 41.5% (95% CI 36.2-47.0%), respectively (p=0.0004). In subgroup analyses, the benefit of carboplatin was confined to patient’s < 50 years, with significant interaction between treatment and age. In women < 50 years of age, in experimental versus control arms, 5-year DFS and OS were 74.5% vs 62.3% (p=0.003, interaction p=0.003) and 76.8% vs 65.7% (p=0.003, interaction p=0.004), respectively. Addition of carboplatin had a significant beneficial impact on OS after adjusting for baseline clinical tumor size and age in a Cox model (HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.58-0.98, p=0.038). In experimental and control arms, numbers of patients with any grade >/=3 toxicity were 140 (38.5%) and 107/355 (30.14%), respectively, (p=0.02), grade >/=3 neutropenia were 2/364 (0.55%) and 1/355 (0.28%), respectively, grade >/=3 thrombocytopenia were 1/364 (0.27%) and 0 (0%), respectively, and febrile neutropenia were 26/364 (7.14%%) and 18/355 (5.07%), respectively (p=0.25). Conclusions: This study, to our knowledge the largest reported trial of neoadjuvant platinum in TNBC thus far, suggests that addition of carboplatin to sequential taxane-anthracycline neoadjuvant chemotherapy results in substantial and clinically meaningful improvement in disease-free and overall survival in young patients with TNBC and should be the standard of care in these patients. Citation Format: Sudeep Gupta, Nita S. Nair, Rohini Hawaldar, Vaibhav Vanmali, Vani Parmar, Seema Gulia, Jaya Ghosh, Shalaka Joshi, Rajiv Sarin, Tabassum Wadasadawala, Tejal Panhale, Sangeeta Desai, Tanuja Shet, Asawari Patil, Garvit Chitkara, Sushmita Rath, Jyoti Bajpai, Meenakshi Thakkur, Rajendra Badwe. Addition of platinum to sequential taxane-anthracycline neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with triple-negative breast cancer: A phase III randomized controlled trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr GS5-01.

The sentence "ESMO has over 250,000 members from 160 countries and has a dedicated support program for all oncologists to support and improve their professional careers." should be read as "ESMO has over 25,000 members from 160 countries and has a dedicated support program for all oncologists to support and improve their professional careers." The online article has been corrected.

No abstract

The treatment landscape of hematological malignancies has been evolving at an extremely fast pace. Hematological malignancies are diverse and distinct from solid tumors. These constitute challenges, which are also unique opportunities for immunotherapy. The five categories of immunotherapies that have found success in the management of hematological malignancies are allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant, monoclonal antibodies and innovative designs, immune checkpoint inhibitors, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, and B cell targeting small immunomodulatory molecules. Allogeneic stem cell transplant rightly called our bluntest weapon is the oldest form of successful immunotherapy. Alternate donor transplants and improvement in supportive care have improved the scope of this immunotherapy option. Among monoclonal antibodies, rituximab forms the prototype on which over a dozen other antibodies have been developed. The bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE) blinatumomab engages cytotoxic CD3 T cells with CD19 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells, which is an effective treatment method for relapsed refractory ALL. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have established their role in hematological malignancies with high PD-L1 expression, including relapsed refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma and primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma (BCL). Small immunomodulatory drugs targeting the B cell receptor downstream signaling through BTK inhibitors, SYK inhibitors, PI3K inhibitors (idelalisib), and BCL-2 inhibitors (venetoclax), and immunomodulatory imide drugs (lenalidomide) have also emerged as exciting therapeutic avenues in immunotherapy. CAR T cells are one of the most exciting and promising forms of adoptive immunotherapy. CAR T cells are rightly called living drugs or serial killers to keep patients alive. CAR T cells are genetically engineered, autologous T cells that combine the cytotoxicity of T cells with the antigen-binding specificity of CARs. CARs are antigen-specific but major histocompatibility complex/human leukocyte antigen-independent. There are five approved CAR T cell products for the management of relapsed refractory leukemias, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. The past and present of immunotherapy have been really exciting and the future looks incredibly promising. The challenges include widening the availability and affordability beyond specialized centers, identification of potentially predictive biomarkers of response, and experience in the management of complications of these novel agents. The combinational approach of multiple immunotherapies might be the way forward to complement the treatment strategies to harness the immune system and to improve survival with good quality of life.