Trastuzumab 1-year vs 9-week in early-stage HER2-positive, lymph node negative breast cancer patients.
OBJECTIVE
Optimal duration of adjuvant trastuzumab therapy in early-stage HER2-positive, lymph node-negative breast cancer is unknown. To establish this, we compared 1-year and 9-week trastuzumab regimens in HER2-positive, lymph node-negative early-stage breast cancer patients.


METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed 4374 breast cancer patients. There were 181 early-stage, lymph node-negative breast cancer patients who were treated with adjuvant trastuzumab for either 9-week or 1-year schedule. A total of 101 patients received trastuzumab for 9 weeks and the remaining 80 patients received this adjuvant therapy for 1 year. Disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates of both groups were calculated.


RESULTS
There was no difference between groups according to OS. Five-year OS rates were 95.5% in the 9-week group and 93.3% in the 1-year group (p=0.78). DFS was affected by age, having tamoxifen therapy and disease stage. Nine-week trastuzumab group was superior to 1-year group and 5-year DFS rates were 91% in 9-week group and 81.2% in 1-year group (p=0.02). However, the 1-year group had more stage II patients than the 9-week group. We did not find any difference between groups regarding developing congestive heart failure.


CONCLUSIONS
It appeared that 9-week trastuzumab treatment was not inferior to 1-year trastuzumab treatment in early-stage, lymph node-negative breast cancer patients.
Department of Hematology, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
Mehmet
M
Ozen
Mehmet
M
Gunduz
Ozturk
O
Ates
Taner
T
Babacan
Ali R
AR
Sever
Serkan
S
Akin
Yavuz
Y
Ozisik
Kadri
K
Altundag
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / Q000008:administration & dosage; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant / Q000379:methods; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013629:Tamoxifen / Q000008:administration & dosage; D000068878:Trastuzumab / Q000008:administration & dosage; D055815:Young Adult
D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D013629:Tamoxifen; D000068878:Trastuzumab