Tolerance of concurrent CDK inhibitor and radiation therapy in metastatic breast cancer patients.

Abstract

e12598 Background: Palbociclib, a small-molecule inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK4 and CDK6), combined with letrozole increases progression-free survival among patients with previously untreated ER-positive, HER2 negative advanced breast cancer. The purpose of our study was to retrospectively evaluate the tolerance of the concomitant association of Palbociclib and radiation therapy (RT) at Curie Institute. Methods: Between April 2017 and August 2019, 30 women with ER-positive, HER2 negative metastatic breast cancer received locoregional (LR) and/or symptomatic irradiation at a metastatic site concurrently with Palbociclib at a daily dose of 125 mg, from d1 to d21 every 28 days. Palbociclib was always associated with endocrine therapy: letrozole (with or without an LHRH analogue) or fulvestrant. Thirty-five sites were irradiated: nine patients received post-operative locoregional RT, including the chest wall or breast and lymph node areas, and 26 sites of metastases were irradiated: 17 at the spine, 7 peripheral skeletal lesions, 1 brain lesion and 1 choroidal lesion. The dose prescribed for locoregional mammary radiotherapy was 50 Gy in 25 fractions and varied for the treatment of metastatic sites: 20 Gy in 5 fractions (n = 13), 30 Gy in 10 fractions (n = 10) and 8 Gy in 1 fraction (n = 2). The brain metastasis was stereotactically treated (1 fraction of 18 Gy). The primary endpoint was toxicity scored according to the common terminology criteria for NCI adverse events, version v5.0. Results: Mean number of days of Palbociclib during RT was 8.8 days (range, 1 to 24 days). The most common acute toxicities were dermatitis (12/35, including 2 grade 2) and neutropenia (12/35, including 9 grade 2). Palbociclib had to be stopped during the RT of two patients (2/30): one patient treated locoregionally (bilateral breast and lymph nodes irradiation) developed a grade 3 dermatitis and febrile neutropenia, another treated locoregionally developed grade 2 dysphagia. After a median follow-up since the end of RT of 17 months (6 – 31 months, SD 8), none of the patients have so far exhibited late toxicity. Conclusions: Concomitant administration of palbociclib with RT was reasonably well tolerated in our series of 30 patients. Given this experience, palbociclib should not be discontinued during radiation therapy. Nevertheless, our findings should be confirmed in prospective registration studies collecting larger number of patients.