Trodelvy Improves Quality of Life Over Chemo in TNBC

Patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) tended to have better quality of life when treated with Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan) compared with chemotherapy of physician’s choice, according to a final analysis of the phase 3 ASCENT study.

Findings from the trial were presented at the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting. At the conference, CURE® spoke with study author Dr. Aditya Bardia, Director of Translational Research Integration and professor in the Department of Medicine at UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Bardia explained that the goal of metastatic breast cancer treatment is twofold: to improve survival and maintain or improve quality of life. He mentioned that although Trodelvy is associated with gastrointestinal side effects, patients overall had better quality of life on the drug because the therapy was better at controlling the disease.

“Overall, in terms of pain reduction [and] in terms of health-related quality of life, it was better with [Trodelvy] and further substantiates why this drug should be for patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer,” Bardia said.

The Food and Drug Administration granted an accelerated approval to Trodelvy in April 2020 for patients with pretreated, metastatic TNBC. About a year later, the agency granted the drug a full approval in this indication.

Transcript:

[With] any treatment we give in the metastatic setting, the goal is twofold: to improve survival and to improvement in quality of life.

So, in the ASCENT study, the team looked at health-related quality of life in patients who receive [Trodelvy] versus treatment of physicians’ choice for patients with metastatic TNBC. In general health-related quality of life deterioration was longer with [Trodelvy] compared to standard chemotherapy, which makes sense because often in the metastatic setting — particularly in triple-negative breast cancer — the quality of life is impaired by the disease. If you have better disease control, you can improve maintain quality of life.

Now, the drug does have side effects like diarrhea, so if we look at the [gastrointestinal] domain, that was worse with [Trodelvy] compared to standard chemotherapy. But overall, in terms of pain reduction, in terms of overall health related quality of life, it was better with [Trodelvy] and further substantiate why this drug should be used for patients with metastatic TNBC.

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