This Phase III trial compares the recurrence-free interval (RFI) among patients with early-stage, low risk HER2+ breast cancer who undergo breast conserving surgery and receive HER2-directed therapy, and are randomized to not receive adjuvant breast radiotherapy versus those who are randomized to receive adjuvant radiotherapy per the standard of care.
The landmark trials that established breast conservation therapy (BCT) (breast-conserving surgery followed by adjuvant breast irradiation) as a suitable alternative to mastectomy were conducted in an era that predated biological subtyping of breast cancer and the use of HER2-directed therapies in patients with HER2+ cancers. These trials established adjuvant radiotherapy following breast-conserving surgery as necessary to maximize local control, yet, in the intervening years, overall outcomes have improved significantly owing to widespread adoption of screening mammography, resulting in a substantial reduction in average tumor size at diagnosis, as well as improvements in surgical techniques and, crucial for this proposal, the development of highly active systemic therapies. Before the development of HER2-targeted therapies, patients with HER2-driven localized breast cancer had among the highest rates of local recurrence. However, with improved identification of these patients and the advent of HER2-directed therapies, outcomes have improved significantly, and trials have sought to optimize treatment to reduce the morbidity of both local and systemic treatment. Among the most salient of these examples is the APT trial, a single-arm adjuvant study that enrolled 410 breast cancer patients with HER2+ tumors ≤ 3cm in size and negative axillary nodes, who received adjuvant systemic therapy with weekly paclitaxel and trastuzumab for 12 weeks (TH) followed by 9 months of trastuzumab monotherapy. In addition to demonstrating a very low incidence of distant recurrence, among those on the trial who underwent BCT (lumpectomy and radiation, n = 244), only 2 local recurrence (LR) events have been reported after 7 years of follow-up (7-year LR = 1.2%), representing among the most favorable local outcomes of any breast cancer cohort studied to date. Confirmatory results are forthcoming from the ATEMPT trial, which evaluated the antibody-drug conjugate T-DM1 (ado-trastuzumab emtansine) (n=383) vs the TH regimen from the APT trial (n = 114), thus far showing only 3 LRs in each arm with a median 3-years of follow-up. Importantly, per the current standard of care for HER2+ patients undergoing BCT, all patients presumably received adjuvant breast radiotherapy. The balance of the BCT literature, including a landmark meta-analysis by the Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group, suggests that adjuvant radiotherapy approximately halves the risk of local recurrence following lumpectomy across all analyzable subgroups. While the relative benefit appears constant across subgroups, the absolute benefit of adjuvant radiotherapy varies with the underlying risk. Taking the favorable results of the APT trial (1.2% 7-year LR), if one presumes that omission of radiotherapy yields a doubling or tripling of local recurrence (based on the observed RR of 0.5 - 0.66 for those receiving radiotherapy across the preponderance of historical trials), this population might have manifested a LR rate of 2.4 - 3.6% with the omission of radiotherapy. That is to say, the hypothesis is that administration of RT to APT patients undergoing BCT may have reduced the 7-year absolute risk of LR by only 1.2-2.4%. Through the identification of patients who are at low risk of LR, it may be acceptable for such patients to forego radiation. This hypothesis will be studied by evaluating omission of radiotherapy among patients with pT1N0 disease at breast-conserving surgery who receive adjuvant HER2-directed therapy (trastuzumab/paclitaxel preferred, other options per protocol), or with clinical tumors ≤ 3 cm and clinically negative axillary nodes (cN0) who achieve a pathologic complete response (pCR; ypT0N0) following preoperative (neoadjuvant) administration of HER2-directed therapy (trastuzumab/paclitaxel preferred, other options per protocol). It is expcted that the 5-year LR rate for this population omitting radiotherapy will be 2% or less, and that omission of radiation will not have a measurable impact on regional and distant recurrences or overall survival. The practice of breast radiation oncology has benefited immensely from practice-changing trials that have refined the application of adjuvant radiotherapy since the early surgical studies determined whole breast radiotherapy to be necessary following lumpectomy. There are now several favorable breast cancer subtypes in which patients routinely forego radiotherapy after trials demonstrating modest benefits in terms of local recurrence and no impact on distant recurrence or survival, such as among small, low grade luminal cancers in older women and "good-risk" DCIS. Therefore, this will study the omission of radiotherapy among a population of HER2+ breast cancer patients who are now appreciated to also have favorable risk, so as to similarly weigh the attendant inconveniences, cost and morbidity of radiotherapy in light of an established absolute benefit, which may prove to be modest.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
1,300
adjuvant breast radiotherapy per the current standard of care
participants are randomized to continue their standard of care systemic HER2-targeted therapy without adjuvant breast radiotherapy
recurrence-free interval (RFI)
Time to recurrence event or censoring
Time frame: From randomization to first recurrence event or censoring for the duration of the trial, at 10.5 years
ipsilateral breast recurrence (IBR) for radiation omitting arm
Time to IBTR event or censoring
Time frame: From randomization to first recurrence event or censoring for the duration of the trial , measured at year 7
ipsilateral breast recurrence (IBR) by treatment arm
Time to ipsilateral breast recurrence (IBR) by treatment arm.
Time frame: From randomization to first recurrence event or censoring for the duration of the trial at 10.5 years.
local regional recurrence (LRR) by treatment arm
Time to local regional recurrence (LRR) by treatment arm.
Time frame: From randomization to first recurrence event or censoring for the duration of the trial at 10.5 years.
disease-free survival (DFS) by treatment arm.
To determine disease-free survival (DFS) by treatment arm.
Time frame: From the time of randomization for the duration of the trial at 10.5 years.
overall survival (OS) by treatment arm.
To determine overall survival (OS) by treatment arm.
Time frame: From the time of randomization for the duration of the trial at 10.5 years.
patient-reported breast pain by treatment arm using the Breast Cancer Treatment Outcome Scale (BCTOS)
To evaluate whether there is a difference in patient-reported breast pain in patients who do and do not receive breast radiation in cohort A and cohort B. The BCTOS pain score has a range from 1-5 with higher scores indicating worse pain.
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Cancer Center at Saint Joseph's
Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Banner University Medical Center - Tucson
Tucson, Arizona, United States
University of Arizona Cancer Center-North Campus
Tucson, Arizona, United States
NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital and Fowler Family Cancer Center - Jonesboro
Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States
Kaiser Permanente-Deer Valley Medical Center
Antioch, California, United States
Mission Hope Medical Oncology - Arroyo Grande
Arroyo Grande, California, United States
PCR Oncology
Arroyo Grande, California, United States
Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital
Auburn, California, United States
Sutter Cancer Centers Radiation Oncology Services-Auburn
Auburn, California, United States
Tower Cancer Research Foundation
Beverly Hills, California, United States
...and 408 more locations
Time frame: At 3 years after randomization
patient-reported worry about recurrence by treatment arm using a the three-item worry about recurrence score
To evaluate whether there is a difference in patient-reported worry about recurrence in patients who do and do not receive breast radiation in cohort A and cohort B. The worry about recurrence score has a range from 1-5 with higher scores indicating more worry.
Time frame: At 3 years after randomization