Adding an immunotherapy agent to the standard therapy for HER2+ metastatic breast cancer can significantly extend the time in which the disease is held in check, according to new research led by Ada Waks, MD, a breast oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
A phase II trial, dubbed AVIATOR and presented today by Waks at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, compared three treatment regimens in 100 patients previously treated for metastatic HER2+ breast cancer: standard therapy (chemotherapy plus the HER2-targeting drug trastuzumab); standard therapy plus avelumab (an immune checkpoint inhibitor, which lowers tumor cell defenses against a T-cell attack); or standard therapy plus avelumab and utomilumab (an immune cell-stimulating drug). All participants had previously been treated for the disease, with 63% receiving more than three lines of prior treatment.
