One year of treatment with trastuzumab after adjuvant chemotherapy significantly improves disease-free survival among women with HER2-positive breast cancer. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00045032.)

No abstract

BACKGROUND Pertuzumab increases the rate of pathological complete response in the preoperative context and increases overall survival among patients with metastatic disease when it is added to trastuzumab and chemotherapy for the treatment of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)–positive breast cancer. In this trial, we investigated whether pertuzumab, when added to adjuvant trastuzumab and chemotherapy, improves outcomes among patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer. METHODS We randomly assigned patients with node-positive or high-risk node-negative HER2-positive, operable breast cancer to receive either pertuzumab or placebo added to standard adjuvant chemotherapy plus 1 year of treatment with trastuzumab. We assumed a 3-year invasive-disease–free survival rate of 91.8% with pertuzumab and 89.2% with placebo. RESULTS In the trial population, 63% of the patients who were randomly assigned to receive pertuzumab (2400 patients) or placebo (2405 patients) had node-positive disease and 36% had hormone-receptor–negative disease. Disease recurrence occurred in 171 patients (7.1%) in the pertuzumab group and 210 patients (8.7%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.81; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66 to 1.00; P= 0.045). The estimates of the 3-year rates of invasive-disease–free survival were 94.1% in the pertuzumab group and 93.2% in the placebo group. In the cohort of patients with node-positive disease, the 3-year rate of invasive-disease–free survival was 92.0% in the pertuzumab group, as compared with 90.2% in the placebo group (hazard ratio for an invasive-disease event, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.62 to 0.96; P= 0.02). In the cohort of patients with node-negative disease, the 3-year rate of invasive-disease–free survival was 97.5% in the pertuzumab group and 98.4% in the placebo group (hazard ratio for an invasive-disease event, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.68 to 1.86; P = 0.64). Heart failure, cardiac death, and cardiac dysfunction were infrequent in both treatment groups. Diarrhea of grade 3 or higher occurred almost exclusively during chemotherapy and was more frequent with pertuzumab than with placebo (9.8% vs. 3.7%). CONCLUSIONS Pertuzumab significantly improved the rates of invasive-disease–free survival among patients with HER2-positive, operable breast cancer when it was added to trastuzumab and chemotherapy. Diarrhea was more common with pertuzumab than with placebo.

Cardiovascular (CV) toxicity is a potential short- or long-term complication of various anticancer therapies. Some drugs, such as anthracyclines or other biological agents, have been implicated in causing potentially irreversible clinically important cardiac dysfunction. Although targeted therapies are considered less toxic and better tolerated by patients compared with classic chemotherapy agents, rare but serious complications have been described, and longer follow-up is needed to determine the exact profile and outcomes of related cardiac side-effects. Some of these side-effects are irreversible, leading to progressive CV disease, and some others induce reversible dysfunction with no long-term cardiac damage to the patient. Assessment of the prevalence, type and severity of cardiac toxicity caused by various cancer treatments is a breakthrough topic for patient management. Guidelines for preventing, monitoring and treating cardiac side-effects are a major medical need. Efforts are needed to promote strategies for cardiac risk prevention, detection and management, avoiding unintended consequences that can impede development, regulatory approval and patient access to novel therapy. These new ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines are the result of a multidisciplinary cardio-oncology review of current evidence with the ultimate goal of providing strict criteria-based recommendations on CV risk prevention, assessment, monitoring and management during anticancer treatment.

No abstract

Coronary care unit CDK Cyclin-dependent kinase CHA 2 DS 2 -VASc Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age ≥ 75 years (2 points), Diabetes mellitus, Stroke (2 points)-Vascular disease, Age 65-74 years, Sex category (female) CIED Cardiac implantable electronic device CML Chronic myeloid leukaemia CMR Cardiac magnetic resonance COMPASS-CAT Prospective COmparison of Methods for thromboembolic risk assessment with clinical Perceptions and AwareneSS in real-life patients-Cancer Associated Thrombosis CPET Cardiopulmonary exercise testing CrCl Creatinine clearance CRF Cardiorespiratory fitness CRS Cytokine release syndrome CS Cancer survivors CT Computed tomography CTLA-4 Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 cTn Cardiac troponin CTRCD Cancer therapy-related cardiac dysfunction CTR-CVT Cancer therapy-related cardiovascular toxicity CV Cardiovascular CVD Cardiovascular disease CVRF Cardiovascular risk factorsData derived from a single randomized clinical trial or large non-randomized studies.Consensus of opinion of the experts and/or small studies, retrospective studies, registries.©ESC 2022 ESC Guidelines © ESC 2022This table refers to anthracycline equivalence dose using doxorubicin as a reference. Note that these isoequivalent doses are derived from paediatric CS. CS, cancer survivors; CV, cardiovascular.a Data for idarubicin are based upon an estimated anticancer efficacy ratio, not derived from cardiotoxicity data. The CV toxicity dose ratio provides the value that should be used to multiply the dose of the anthracycline of interest to convert to isoequivalent doses of doxorubicin; e.g. to convert 125 mg/m 2 of epirubicin to doxorubicin isoequivalent, multiply the dose by 0.8 (125 mg/m 2 × 0.8 = 100 mg/m 2 of doxorubicin).

Progress in the detection and treatment of cancer has led to an impressive reduction in both mortality and morbidity. Due to their mechanism of action, however, conventional chemotherapeutics and some of the newer anti-cancer signaling inhibitors carry a substantial risk of cardiovascular side effects that include cardiac dysfunction and heart failure, arterial hypertension, vasospastic and thromboembolic ischaemia, dysrhythmia, and QT prolongation. While some of these side effects are irreversible and cause progressive cardiovascular disease, others induce only temporary dysfunction with no apparent long-term sequelae for the patient. The challenge for the cardiovascular specialist is to balance the need for life-saving cancer treatment with the assessment of risk from cancer drug-associated cardiovascular side effects to prevent long-term damage. This review discusses concepts for timely diagnosis, intervention, and surveillance of cancer patients undergoing treatment, and provides approaches to clinical uncertainties.

Given the clear benefit in disease-free survival, the low incidence of cardiac adverse events, and the suggestion that cardiac dysfunction might be reversible, adjuvant trastuzumab should be considered for treatment of breast cancer patients who fulfill the HERA trial eligibility criteria.