Background: The aim of this explorative phase II study was to evaluate the activity and safety of lapatinib in combination with intravenous vinorelbine in women with HER2 positive metastatic or recurrent breast cancer.
Methods: Twenty-nine patients were enrolled. The primary objectives were response and clinical benefit (CB) rates, secondary objectives were toxicity, response duration and progression free survival. Patients received 1250 mg oral lapatinib continuously once daily and intravenous vinorelbine 20-25 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 8, every 3 weeks.
Results: Although 25 patients were evaluable for response, according to intend to treat analysis of 28 patients; 14% had confirmed partial response (PR) and 36% had stable disease more than 24 weeks with a CB rate of 50%. Sixty four percent of the patients suffered from grade 3-4 hematologic and 18% from grade 3 extra-hematologic toxicities.
Conclusion: The results of this trial provide evidence to further investigate the potential of this combination for patients unsuitable for trastuzumab or who become refractory to trastuzumab.
Keywords: HER2 positive; Lapatinib; Metastatic breast cancer; Vinorelbine.
Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.