Rate of use of NCCN “preferred” chemotherapy regimens for the treatment of HER2 positive breast cancer.

Abstract

163 Background: The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines represent a well-established standard of care for the treatment of HER2+ breast cancer patients. eviCore healthcare is a licensee of NCCN that uses the NCCN guidelines to support its proprietary chemotherapy management program. All regimens assigned NCCN Category of Evidence 1, 2A, or 2B are adherent treatments in the eviCore program. NCCN recommends many systemic treatment options for HER2+ breast cancer, and a limited group is designated by NCCN as “preferred” based on superior efficacy and/or safety. This study evaluated the frequency of NCCN-preferred regimen use by practicing oncologists in HER2+ breast cancer patients. Methods: Chemotherapy authorizations for all HER2+ breast cancer patients with ≥ 1 injectable drug from 4/1/2015-9/30/2016 for multiple payers were included; > 90% of authorizations occurred in United HealthCare members. Cases with incomplete data were excluded. 3685 fully evaluable cases were stratified by stage, ER/PR status, and NCCN-preferred vs. NCCN-recommended status. The frequency of NCCN-preferred regimen selection was calculated for each subgroup. Results: There were 2883 HER2+/ER+ and/or PR+ cases and 802 HER2+/ER-/PR- cases. The highest frequency of NCCN-preferred regimen use occurred in neoadjuvant chemotherapy for patients with Stage III HER2+/ER+ and/or PR+ disease, where 88% of 289 patients used an NCCN-preferred regimen. Metastatic HER2+ patients had a markedly lower rate of NCCN-preferred regimen use at 62% of 557 cases. Only 48% of 1096 patients with Stage I/II HER2+/ER+ and/or PR+ disease received NCCN-preferred regimens. Conclusions: Patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy for HER2+ breast cancer receive NCCN-preferred regimens at significantly higher rates than patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy or metastatic treatment. Less than half of patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy are receiving NCCN-preferred regimens. Further study is needed to determine the reasons for low preferred regimen use and ways to optimize preferred regimen use in HER2+ breast cancer.