The Toxicity of T-DM1 in Breast Cancer Patients with Liver Metastases

Mark D. Pegram, MD, a professor of medicine at Stanford University Medical Center and the director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Stanford Cancer Institute, discusses the results of a retrospective analysis that examined the toxicity of patients with liver metastases that were enrolled in phase III studies of T-DM1 for metastatic breast cancer.

Clinical Pearls:

• The analysis showed that patients with liver metastases or liver metastases plus elevated LFTs at baseline had the same incidence of grade 3/4 adverse events as those patients that did not have liver metastases or elevated LFTs at baseline
• The patients in those subgroups that did experience adverse events mostly experienced laboratory adverse events
• The analysis also showed that T-DM1 in the patients who had liver metastases or liver metastases plus elevated LFTs at baseline was still superior to the control-treated patients
• These results show that liver metastases is not an impediment to safe and efficacious use of T-DM1