Abstract

<div>AbstractPurpose:<p>There is no research evidence demonstrate which is the better partner strategy, endocrine therapy or chemotherapy, to combine with anti-HER2 therapy as the first-line management of hormone receptor (HR)-positive (HR<sup>+</sup>) and HER2-positive (HER2<sup>+</sup>) metastatic breast cancer (MBC). We wished to ascertain if trastuzumab plus endocrine therapy is noninferior to trastuzumab plus chemotherapy.</p>Patients and Methods:<p>We conducted an open-label, noninferiority, phase III, randomized, controlled trial (NCT01950182) at nine hospitals in China. Participants, stratified by previous adjuvant endocrine therapy and disease status (recurrent disease vs<i>. de novo</i> metastasis), were assigned randomly (1:1) to receive trastuzumab plus endocrine therapy (per investigator's choice of oestrogen-receptor modulators or aromatase inhibitor, with/without concurrent ovarian suppression) or chemotherapy (per investigator's choice of taxanes, capecitabine, or vinorelbine). The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS) with a noninferiority upper margin of 1.35 for the HR. The intention-to-treat population was used in primary and safety analyses.</p>Results:<p>A total of 392 patients were enrolled and assigned randomly to receive trastuzumab plus endocrine therapy (ET group, <i>n</i> = 196) or trastuzumab plus chemotherapy (CT group, <i>n</i> = 196). After a median follow-up of 30.2 months [interquartile range (IQR) 15.0–44.7], the median PFS was 19.2 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 16.7–21.7)] in the ET group and 14.8 months (12.8–16.8) in the CT group (hazard ratio, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.71–1.09; <i>P</i><sub>noninferiority</sub> < 0.0001). A significantly higher prevalence of toxicity was observed in the CT group compared with the ET group.</p>Conclusions:<p>Trastuzumab plus endocrine therapy was noninferior to trastuzumab plus chemotherapy in patients with HR<sup>+</sup>HER2<sup>+</sup> MBC.</p></div>

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