PURPOSE Insertion mutations in Erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2 gene ( ERBB2 or HER2) exon 20 occur in 2%-5% of non–small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) and function as an oncogenic driver. Poziotinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, was evaluated in previously treated patients with NSCLC with HER2 exon 20 insertions. METHODS ZENITH20, a multicenter, multicohort, open-label phase II study, evaluated poziotinib in patients with advanced or metastatic NSCLC. In cohort 2, patients received poziotinib (16 mg) once daily. The primary end point was objective response rate evaluated by independent review committee (RECIST v1.1); secondary outcome measures were disease control rate, duration of response, progression-free survival, and safety and tolerability. Quality of life was assessed. RESULTS Between October 2017 and March 2021, 90 patients with a median of two prior lines of therapy (range: 1-6) were treated. With a median follow-up of 9.0 months, objective response rate was 27.8% (95% CI, 18.9 to 38.2); 25 of 90 patients achieved a partial response. Disease control rate was 70.0% (95% CI, 59.4 to 79.2). Most patients (74%) had tumor reduction (median reduction 22%). Median progression-free survival was 5.5 months (95% CI, 3.9 to 5.8); median duration of response was 5.1 months (95% CI, 4.2 to 5.5). Clinical benefit was seen regardless of lines and types of prior therapy, presence of central nervous system metastasis, and types of HER2 mutations. Grade 3 or higher treatment-related adverse events included rash (48.9%), diarrhea (25.6%), and stomatitis (24.4%). Most patients had poziotinib dose reductions (76.7%), with median relative dose intensity of 71.5%. Permanent treatment discontinuation because of treatment-related adverse events occurred in 13.3% of patients. CONCLUSION Poziotinib demonstrates antitumor activity in previously treated patients with HER2 exon 20 insertion NSCLC.

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Between April 1990 and December 1997, 811 consecutive patients with 830 newly diagnosed breast cancers having their primary treatments in our institution were included in this study. Sixty three percent of breast cancer patients were premenopausal. The early-onset breast cancer (age < or = 40) composed 29.3% of all patients. The five-year survival rate of all patients was 80.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 76.2-84.6%). The five-year overall survival rate for stage 0 was 95.7% (95% CI, 87.3-100%), stage I, 93.9% (95% CI, 88.9-98.9%), stage II, 88.5% (95% CI, 82.0-95.1%), stage III, 65.0% (95% CI, 54.0-75.9%), and stage IV, 18.5% (95% CI, 3.4-33.7%). Multivariate analysis of primary operable breast cancer revealed that axillary lymph node involvement, high nuclear grade and early-onset breast cancer (age< or = 40) were poor prognostic factors. The early-onset breast cancer had a more aggressive clinical behavior than that of the older age group, their five-year disease-free survival rates for stage I, stage II and stage III diseases being only 64.7%, 66.5%, and 43.3%, respectively. In these patients the only meaningful prognostic factor was extensive axillary lymph node metastasis (> or = 10). In summary, breast cancer patients in Taiwan tend to be younger than their counterpart in western countries. The early-onset breast cancer had poorer prognostic features for all stages comparing to the older age group. Standard pathologic factors are not good predictors of their outcome. For these patients new biologic markers need to be sought to distinguish between high and low risk and the treatment strategy for them should be guided by the aggressive characteristics of the disease.

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Whether to perform primary tumor resection in patients with asymptomatic Stage IV colorectal cancer remains controversial; however, the more aggressively we perform radical resection and metastasectomy to selected patients, the more survival benefits the patients obtain.