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What is your approach to adjuvant HER-2 directed therapy in a patient who developed cardiotoxicity following neoadjuvant TC-HP?

Can these patients be re-challenged with Herceptin?
6 Answers
Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Medical Oncology · University of North Carolina
Answered on

Depending on the risk of the cancer and how bad the cardiotoxicity was, it may be worth trying to reinstitute HER2-directed therapy. Typically I hold HER2-directed therapy for a month at a time (until the EF gets to 50% or higher at which point I reinstitute) and involve a cardiologist familiar with our drugs who can medically manage the cardiotoxicity proactively. 

Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Medical Oncology · The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Answered on

While I agree with a number of the comments above, including omission of pertuzumab if cardio-oncology feels comfortable with rechallenging her with trastuzumab, my recommendations would be tempered by her stage at presentation and response to neoadjuvant therapy - if she had clinical stage II disease at presentation and achieved a pCR with her neoadjuvant therapy, her prognosis should be excellent, and there is no data that it will be improved by further HER2-targeted therapy. In the trials comparing 12 months to shorter durations of trastuzumab, there is very little (if any) absolute benefit for the longer course of treatment - if the patient has no contraindications I'm OK with giving 12 months of trastuzumab but not if there's a risk of doing permanent damage to her heart, especially given the rarity of cardiac complications with the anthracycline-free regimens      

Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Medical Oncology · University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Answered on

In addition to the answers above, I would also consider re-challenging with trastuzumab only (without pertuzumab) since the APHINITY data showed only a very small absolute difference in DFS and there is no overall survival benefit demonstrated to date with pertuzumab in the adjuvant setting.

 

Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Medical Oncology · Columbia University Medical Center
Answered on

There is some data that beta blockers can help prevent some cardiac toxicity. I would wait until the EF was greater than 50%; make sure that any cardiovascular comorbidities are managed, and consider a low dose of carvedilol during therapy. However, the EF would need to be monitored after every cycle, and the patient should be followed by a cardiologist

Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Medical Oncology · UT Southwestern Medical Center
Answered on

Notably, most women on the pivotal adjuvant North American and HERA studies were able to successfully rechallenge with trastuzumab after a hold due to a "significant" LVEF change while receiving trastuzumab, so i am comfortable with the trastuzumab rechallenge strategy as was adopted on those studies  and in population based studies. However, as outlined by Drs. Hershman and Carey, cardio-oncology is a growing field and I enlist their input for patients being treated off-study and support their research efforts so that we can collectively understand the more nuanced issues around HER2-directed therapy mediated risk.

Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Medical Oncology · NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Answered on

I agree with the recommendations above, omitting the pertuxumab and rechallenging with trastuzumab when EF recovers to >50%, optimizing cardiac care with beta blockers and/or ACE inhibitors. When rechallening with trastuzumab, one can consider weekly dosing at 2mg/kg at first, monitoring with echo regularly.